The Collector's Voice

by Pearce, Susan M.; Martin, Paul; Bounia, Alexandra

• ISBN13: 9781859284209
• ISBN10: 1859284205
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-10-01
• Publisher: Scolar Pr

Summary

The Collector's Voice is a major four-volume project which brings together in accessible form material relevant to the history and practice of collecting in the European tradition from c. 1500 BC to the present day. The series demonstrates how attitudes to objects, the collecting of objects, and the shape of the museum institution have developed over the past 3000 years. Material presented includes translations of a wide range of original documents: letters, official reports, verse, fiction, travellers' accounts, catalogues and labels.Volume 1: Ancient Voices, edited by Susan Pearce and Alexandra BouniaVolume 2: Early Voices, edited by Susan Pearce and Kenneth ArnoldVolume 3: Imperial Voices, edited by Susan Pearce and Rosemary FlandersVolume 4: Contemporary Voices, edited by Susan Pearce and Paul Martin

Table of Contents

General preface to series	viii
Acknowledgements	xi
Introduction	xii
Susan Pearce
Paul Martin
I Talk between men and women
G.S., the butterfly collector	3	(3)
L.M. and his wife, the Inuit print collectors	6	(2)
Lou, the strawberry collector	8	(3)
Randy, the musical instrument collector	11	(4)
The fridge magnet collector	15	(3)
The jugs and china pieces collector	18	(2)
The motor cycle rally badges collector	20	(2)
The stones and rocks collector	22	(2)
The Hornby Collectors Club	24	(3)
A walk down Lilliput Lane	27	(3)
Collecting food and drink	30	(5)
Sad find of a birds' egg collector	35	(2)
Collecting as underground activity	37	(6)
II Consuming voices
Metal detectorists and treasure hunters	43	(3)
Magazines for collectors	46	(3)
Children's leagues, rings, clubs and circles	49	(5)
Collectors find guidance: the Robertson's Golly Handbook	54	(4)
The consuming media	58	(5)
Clubbing together: the Clarice Cliff Collectors Club	63	(3)
Collectors' clubs as commercial venture	66	(4)
Dealing	70	(3)
The People's Show: towards a more democratic museum?	73	(5)
Club collects new members	78	(3)
Collectors on the Internet	81	(5)
The Corgi Heritage Centre	86	(7)
III Talking collectables
Don't ask why, just put a lid on it: Tupperware	93	(4)
A search for identity in antiques markets	97	(4)
Make the most of car-boot sales	101	(4)
£100m sector feeds our past to the addicts	105	(3)
A symphony of shimmering beauty	108	(4)
Eggberts: a nest full of funny collectables	112	(3)
Beanie Baby update	115	(3)
Welcome to McDonald's	118	(5)
Exclusive first editions subscriber offer	123	(4)
Under the counter	127	(4)
Star Wars	131	(3)
Sell it while it's hot, collect it when it's not	134	(7)
IV Collecting stories
The Silmarillion	141	(3)
J.R.R. Tolkien
The Brading Collection, and Michael Innes: A Connoisseur's Case	144	(6)
Patricia Wentworth
The Collector	150	(3)
John Fowles
Things	153	(4)
Georges Perec
The Keeper of Antiquities	157	(4)
Yury Dombrovsky
The Great Victorian Collection	161	(5)
Brian Moore
Scruples	166	(5)
Judith Krantz
The Name of the Rose and Foucault's Pendulum	171	(6)
Umberto Eco
Quartet in Autumn	177	(5)
Barbara Pym
Utz	182	(4)
Bruce Chatwin
Morpho Eugenia	186	(4)
A.S. Byatt
Behind the Scenes of the Museum	190	(3)
Kate Atkinson
The Collector Collector	193	(3)
Tibor Fischer
Point of Origin	196	(7)
Patricia Cornwell
V Discourses of possibility
Mr Opie's obsession	203	(5)
Vorsprung Durch shopping	208	(7)
London's Toy Museum to be broken up	215	(3)
The `Lite fantastic'	218	(4)
For your amusement	222	(5)
Second World War's modern-day hero	227	(4)
Written on the body	231	(12)
The numbers game	243	(4)
Beach gems power revival of jet age in Whitby	247	(3)
Q: It began in the UK. Then the Americans bought up all the talent. What is it?	250	(5)
Stars of light	255	(6)
All our yesterdays	261	(8)
VI Future voices
celebrity scavenger	269	(4)
Ward Harrison
Historians agog over can labels	273	(3)
Victorian harvest of history	276	(3)
Doll collector for seventy years	279	(3)
Some correspondence with spoon collectors	282	(3)
Badges discovery gave restaurateur food for thought	285	(3)
`Collected'	288	(5)
`Maybe' at the Serpentine	293	(3)
Artistic interventions	296	(3)
Massacre at Wounded Knee	299	(3)
Collecting as news	302	(4)
Time capsules: collecting for the Millennium	306	(5)
Bibliography	311	(8)
Index	319