Collecting things

A new book just come out with the title To Have and to Hold. According to the title, it would seem just a story of collecting and collectors, but actually it goes much further that. As well as telling us about great collectors of the past, it also investigates the reasons why people collect things.

In past centuries, only wealthy people afford to travel and most collections started with just a strange objects which had been brought on trips abroad. In the days before photography and television, this was the only people could see objects from other cultures. Gradually, museums were established that ordinary people would be to see these treasures, too.

These days, everyone seems to be collector. The book describes collectors the "archaeologists of the present" and it contains some fascinating interviews. instance, there's the man has 50,000 items of food packaging stored tin his home, andthe teenager willing to spend large sums of money on the rare Star Wars toy that complete her collection. In explaining we collect things, however, the book sees no difference great art collectors and teenagers collecting items related their favourite pop stars. The social and psychological explanations for collecting, it says, are much the same.