How To Make A Collection

Description

This section is from the book "Time Out for Living", by Ernest DeAlton Partridge and Catherine Mooney. Also available from Amazon: Time Out for Living.

How To Make A Collection

It is not easy to explain in general terms how to make a collection. Each particular kind of collection has its own romance and method of display. If you are collecting rocks of various kinds, a small box divided into sections might be the thing with which to start. A collector of different kinds of wood may wish to hang his specimens in orderly fashion along the wall, while the person interested in shells could find an excellent display case in an old china cupboard.

Small corner cabinets hanging on the wall are finding favor with collectors of small things because they are convenient places in which to lay out the articles. A woman who collects small carved elephants has a parade of them from the smallest to the largest in such a hanging shelf, and they are most intriguing.

Perhaps one good general rule about collecting is to find out all you can about what you are assembling. In this way you learn to appreciate the value of new specimens and can tell your friends the stories behind each article. Also, you will learn new and different things about your hobby and thus come into possession of more valuable items.

By finding other persons in your own community and in distant places who have the same hobby you have, you can multiply the chances of securing what you are seeking. You can trade ideas and actual articles.

The Fun of It. Now that we have briefly surveyed part of the field for collectors, it might be well to stop for a moment and see where the fun comes in. If you are a collector, you will know that it is fun, but you may not be able to explain why beyond the fact that you like it. This is true of many hobbies. It is possible, however, to see certain values that appeal to those who make a hobby of collecting.

Take the matter of classification, for instance. A real collector will take great pains to see that each specimen is carefully classified and understood. No part of the article misses his inspection. In this way he comes to understand the object and to know the romance behind it. He knows where it fits into his complete collection, and he knows what to look for in order to find new and more precious additions.

Here is where some more of the fun comes in. Once you get on the trail of items for a collection, you will find that the search may lead you anywhere. You may rush into the library some day to find a reference to your hobby in a book mentioned by a fellow collector, or you may find yourself visiting another person about whom you have heard, someone who is interested in the same thing or who may have a specimen you want. You will find, also, that by writing to people in other cities and even other countries you can extend your collection and also your knowledge.

Last, but by no means least, is the satisfaction that collectors gain from talking with each other about their hobby. Listening in on two such hobbyists you might hear:

"You should see the new button I found the other day! It fits into the empty space in my collection. . . ."

Such is the fun of collecting. Everybody does it! You, too, can be a collector without any investment whatsoever, if you choose the right things to collect.

Here is a list of collections some people have made:

Albums Anecdotes Animal bronzes Antiques Apostle spoons Apothecaries' medicine jars Armor Arms Guns

Medieval weapons Savage weapons Small arms

Association items (that is, articles that once belonged to well-known people, as Lincoln, Napoleon, Dickens)

Autographs

Bandboxes (old bandboxes were decorated with pictures or patterns)

Banks, children's (many quaint designs of penny savings banks) Barber bowls Beads Bells

Bird cages

Books (see special list)

Bottles (with pictures of the Presidents or other designs pressed in glass)

Bows and arrows

Broadsides

Buttons

Cameos

Canes

Carved ivories Chess pieces China

Historical plates

Pitchers

Spode

Tea sets

Tobies

Wedgwood Church vestments Cigar bands Cigarette cards

Circus stuff (playbills and posters) Clocks

Coaches and carriages (ancient, full-sized or models) Coins

Coverlets, bedspreads, and quilts

Cowbells

Curios

Decanters

Dime novels

Dolls

Elephants (small models in china, glass, wood, brass, cloth, etc.) Embroideries Fans

Figurines (small statues, terra cotta, Chelsea, etc.) Firearms

Firebacks (that once stood behind the fire in old fireplaces) Furniture Glassware

Early American pressed

Glass dishes

Sandwich

Stiegel Gold plate

Guns

Hall marks Hooked rugs Hourglasses

Icons (Russian sacred images) Indian arrowheads Insurance plaques Ironmongery (old handwrought hinges, latches, brackets) Jade Laces Lamps

Leather fire buckets Locks and keys Maps

Matchbox covers Medals

Miniature coaches Mortars and pestles Musical instruments Nails

Names (odd surnames and place names)

Natural objects (see special list)

Newspapers (old)

Paper money (any period or any country) Penmanship (old copybooks) Pewter

Phonograph records Pictures (see special list) Playbills (actors' photographs) Playing cards (of all nations, old and modern) Postage stamps Postcards Posters Pottery

Prints (see special list) Rogers groups