"Human collections of objects can be instruments of research about the world or objects of aesthetic delight. Linnaeus, Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace made systematic collections of creatures and things. Linnaeus in the 18th century travelled widely and sent students all over the world. At his death in 1778 Joseph Banks tried to buy his collection, which was finally sold to James Edward Smith in 1783 and is now housed in the Linnaean Society in Burlington House in London. There were 14,000 plants, 3,198 insects and 1,564 shells."
Freud too, as Jacqueline Yallop reminds us in her interesting book, was both a collector and interested in collecting. He collected antiquities and described intense collecting as a form of fetishism.
In our own time The Antiques Roadshow andFlog It! have fed our interest in artefacts and added a new word, "collectible", to our vocabulary. The surrealists collected random objects (a collection of which is now on display in Houston in the Menil Collection).
Related articles
- Kingdom Animalia: The Escapades of Linnaeus (freegardanimalia.wordpress.com)
- Friday mystery object #100 answer (paolov.wordpress.com)
- Magpies, Squirrels and Thieves: How the Victorians Collected the World, By Jacqueline Yallop (independent.co.uk)
- Magpies, Squirrels and Thieves
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- Antiques Roadshow at Hever Castle 16th June Highlights and howlers down the years (southeasttourguides.wordpress.com)
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