The Pleasures of Collecting

The title page of The Pleasures of Collecting, by Gardner Teall, offers sundry delectable excursions in the realm of antiques and curios, American, European, and Oriental. The address headed Dear Reader says your true collector does not apologize for his hobbies; he exalts their virtues. The author says it adds to the interest of collecting that the collector soon learns where to look for things, yet constantly meets with them also where they are least expected.

A chapter headed Collectors of Yesterday says it is Francesco Petrarca’s chief title to fame that he was an inveterate collector of classical writings. The author says that, as we are told, a regular market for the art wares made by French prisoners at Norman Cross was held daily in the camp. The author says the French war prisoners exhibited their skill at Dartmoor, Stapleton, Liverpool, and Greenland Valleyfield, and that at the Liverpool prison they constructed little straw marqueterie cases to contain miniature ships and like articles.