Collecting News Briefs

Thursday, June 30, 2011

If you want to start collecting, check your attic | stargazette.com

If you want to start collecting, check your attic | Star-Gazette | stargazette.com:

Want to become a collector of Civil War photos or documents, or other historical items?

"'A lot of people have things in their attics and trunks,' said Dick Buchanan. 'They just don't understand the value.'"

If you uncover something you think might be of value, or if you don't find anything in the attic and you want to seek items outside the home, Buchanan suggests finding a reputable dealer.

Shakers' colorful craftsmanship exhibit | The Asheville citizen-times.com

Frist exhibition reveals Shakers' love of color, craftsmanship | The Asheville Citizen-Times | citizen-times.com:

<cutline><HA,4,203>A 19th-century wooden pail, on view in Gather Up the Fragments, an exhibition of Shaker objects on view at Frist Center for the Visual Arts through Aug. 21.<HA,4,0><cutline_credit> <HA,4,200>submitted</cutline_credit></cutline>

"The more than 200 items — furniture, clothing, etc. — in the exhibition illustrate three aspects of Shaker design: clean, crisp lines; an integrated design philosophy; and, yes, the occasional hit of color, some of it quite vibrant.

Gather Up the Fragments originated at Hancock Shaker Village in Pittsfield, Mass; the objects are drawn from a collection started by Faith and Edward Andrews in the 1920s. Though the Andrews were not the first outsiders to appreciate the simple beauty of Shaker furniture and other work, they were among the first to begin collecting and cataloging the objects."

Related articles

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Civil War collectibles - past life as Union soldier inspired him to become a collector | stargazette.com

Horseheads optician says past life as Union soldier inspired him to become a collector | Star-Gazette | stargazette.com:

"Buchanan, who lives in Columbia Cross Roads, started collecting Civil War items in the early 1970s.

The first piece he acquired was a Union soldier's belt plate, for which he paid a collector $11.

The collection grew over the years: photographs, guns, swords, cartridge boxes, uniforms, along with letters and documents. Three of his photos were used in the Ken Burns documentary, 'The Civil War.'

A favorite item is a document written by Charles H. Crane, the U.S. surgeon general at the time, to all the prison camps in the North.

Labeled 'Instructions Concerning Prisoners of War Sick in Hospital,' it spelled out the rations they were to receive."

Related articles

Magpies, Squirrels and Thieves by Jacqueline Yallop – review | Books | The Guardian

Magpies, Squirrels and Thieves by Jacqueline Yallop – review | Books | The Guardian:

Stuffed squirrels from Potter's Museum of Stuffed Animals

"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).

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