The Art of Collections

Recently I visited the Sir John Soane's Museum in London. For some strange reason, even though I lived there for some time, it never crossed my path. Oh, what a place!! How perfectly amazing it felt to be there!!

Since then I've been wondering about the reasons people collect and the sort of things they decide to amass. My father who could be the perfect study case, started collecting pocket knives at the age of 8, since then he has moved to pens, fly fishing rods to beads just to name a few. He has been such an avid collector throughout his life, that now his apartment is starting to look a bit like a 'wunderkammer.' A very modern one!

The collecting vein has been implanted perfectly in my oldest son who now has more erasers than he will ever need, and so many Lego mini figures that they've magically started to appear in every corner of my house.

There is a wonderful book that I highly recommend by Philipp Blom called To Have and to Hold, which I read many years ago when I was writing my thesis -this subject matter, (collecting and the reasons behind it) is one that I still find fascinating, and a beautifully done book by Lisa Congdon, A Collection a Day.

My father's beads and pliers

My son's LEGO mini figures

My husband's card holders and his brother's frogs

"Saving the world, or a world, preserving history or genius, saintliness or innocence, touching something beyond our random existence is a labour of love, a constant ritual, one face of the desire to be authentic, to be human."  Philipp Blom

Happy collecting!
Giova