- Paperback: 288 pages
- Publisher: Penguin UK; New edition edition (July 29 2003)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0140294805
- ISBN-13: 978-0140294804
- Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.8 x 2.2 cm
- Shipping Weight: 322 g
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #562,849 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
The mania of collecting, a pastime usually reserved for the most wealthy of individuals, has a long history, says German-born journalist Blom. For many collectors, "money is no object, and objects are everything." Blom begins his formal, idiosyncratic chronicle in the 16th century, when the Renaissance-fueled explosion of scientific inquiry led to a boom in what the Dutch referred to as cabinets of curiosities. Typically stocked with small antiques and remains of strange animals and men (fake and real), they were popular among the rich and bourgeois across Europe through the next few centuries. Blom follows the tradition into the dark castles of crazed aristocrats and obsessed collectors (such as the 18th-century German doctor who had a collection of skulls taken from the local gallows and asylum) who thought to compile small, neurotically labeled and catalogued worlds, which countered the chaotic one outside their walls. Although Blom's book sticks mainly to highbrow collecting-e.g., old master drawings, snuffboxes, architectural models, human skulls, books-and does not come to any conclusions on what drives people to collect, it is an admirable attempt to chart the history of an obsession. 53 b&w illus. and photos.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Booklist
It does take one to known one. Journalist Blom waxes lyrical about the art and craft of collecting--and the results of collectors' labors. His own interest started with his grandfather's "The Yellow Finch" shop in Amsterdam, and here he relates stories of some of the oddest hobbies-of-passion known to history. Prince Rudolf of Habsburg, later Holy Roman Emperor, amassed amazing things of nature--a musk pouch, Seychelles nut, a bezoar (a poison antidote), among other "miracles," housed in a huge rococo chest. Czar Peter the Great was obsessed with dwarfs and freaks, so much so that he bought the entire collection of a Dutch doctor and moved it to St. Petersburg. Then, the business moguls, including J. Pierpont Morgan and William Randolph Hearst, had their arts and oddities, too. Throughout these well-documented stories, Blom probes the heart and soul of collecting's appeal, whether it be for the beauty of the superficial (a book's hand-wrought leather binding, for example) or the beauty of the content inside. An intellectual journey worth taking. Barbara Jacobs
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.8 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Stories and more.., Feb 17 2007
By Stephen Balbach - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: To Have And To Hold (Hardcover)
At first I thought this was going to be a survey of some eccentric collectors in history, on which is does not disappoint, but it turns out to be a lot richer and contain some real pearls of wisdom about life in general, and flashes of historical insight.Reading through the chapters of this book was a lot like rummaging through a private collectors cabinet of curiosities. The chapter titles alone don't provide direction and only after a few pages does it begin to reveal its treasure. Chapters cover aspects of collecting as diverse as: people who collected experiences with women (Casanova), the collecting of body parts (religious relics), collecting memories, American billionaires who bought up European heritage (JP Morgan, Hearst), collectors of mass-produced items (milk bottles, food wrappers), Princes and Kings such as Rudolf of Hapsburg (17th C) who filled his castle with the worlds greatest collections and slowly went mad, collecting as a madness, as a substitute for love, as a form of autism, as psychology, as crime - and in the end, as a warning to all those who take it too far.
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Absorbing and fascinating, Feb 22 2007
By Joy Kearney - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: To Have And To Hold (Hardcover)
This is a book that takes you on a fascinating journey, is an enjoyable read and is also historically well-researched, so it can therefore be used by the student or academic as a useful reference. I came upon it quite by accident but now find it a very useful addition to my bookshelf. The story of the Ashmolean Museum's foundation was one of my particular favourites and really made my blood boil! Such stories are not often told about museum collections! I take my hat off to the author!
18 of 21 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Worlds of wonder, May 30 2003
By Carlos - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: To Have And To Hold (Hardcover)
Absorbing and beautifully written, with a great bibliography to lead you on in your travels through this fascinating genre. Blom does for the general subject of collecting what Basbanes did for bibliophilia in A Gentle Madness. Well worth the read.
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