QUEER COLLECTORS

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 94, 15 January 1936, Page 15

QUEER COLLECTORS

Drama and Tragedy In Pursuit of Hobbies STRANGE ADVENTURES In New York one philatelist murdered another in order to possess himself of a certain rare stamp, writes a contributor in an English newspaper. The history of rare gems is full of drama and tragedy. The real collector will risk death and disease while on the trail of some rare specimen—orchid hunters, for instance, and the men who go in search of rare animals in the jungles of Borneo, New Guinea, the Amazon and the Congo. Collectors hunt for other things beside exotic flowers and rare Cape of Good Hope stamps. I knew one old gentleman who used to roll pellets of the various sorts of mud in which he bad waded during his travels, which were extensive. These pellets were dried and then placed in little Pillboxes, each carefully labelled. He would out with one of these boxes while taking his ease at a tavern, for he was very human, apart from his amiable mania, and would tell most interesting stories which had to do with the places where he had found the particular pellet concerning which he was talking. Luggage labels have attracted a number of collectors, but some of these have not been real amateurs. They have acquired them in order to sell them to snobbish persons who wish to give their neighbours the impression that they, the snobs, are much-travelled folk who only frequent the best hotels and voyage only first-class on the most luxurious liners. Matchboxes are not an uncommon hobby. There are many grown-up men and women who have still'the juvenile urge to collect railway, bus and tram tickets. China and earthenware have an uncanny fascination for some people. I know of a most capable and intelligent man who will leave his country home to go to London on urgent business, and will promptly forget all about his appointments if he sees anything Japanese or Chinese in those little antique shops in the Paddington and Edgware Road districts. He has even forgotten to go to the bank to draw money for his week-end household and personal expenses when engaged in the delights of bargaining over a Chinese vase or a Japanese print. His wife now sees to it that a capable escort accompanies him when he is on important business. Everyone has heard of the cheerful, Micawber-like person who collected summonses. I know one modern Falstaff who has a little book in which are pasted his receipts from various London police courts for fines imposed for drunkenness. He always insisted on obtaining a receipt. A really fine and rare collection belongs to a certain, dear old lady. It is composed of rare linen, some of it hundreds of years old. She has the secret of preserving and repairing it, and is frequently called upon by museums either to give advice or to render her expert services. A number of the pieces in her possession have maps or pictures worked into the pattern, which you can see only when you hold the linen at a certain angle to the light. The collection of toy soldiers is not an occupation only of the nursery, as some may imagine. It is a well-recog-nised grown-up hobby nowadays, and there is an international association of such collectors, many of them distinguished men, who have some wonderful specimens of historic uniforms among their tin, wooden, and lead soldiers. Dolls are another interesting hobby, and they possess historic value. An old shoemaker, with a pretty wit, had a mania for pencil-ends, which he hoarded up in old biscuit tins by the thousand. If he could procure these by stealth he was far happier than if you offered him one. He would borrow one ostensibly to mark out a sole ou a piece of leather or brown paper, and it would disappear. He would express the utmost surprise and sorrow at its disappearance. He had switched it into the box by his side, the swiftness of his hand defeating the keenness of your eye. however carefully you watched him.