COLLECTING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20229, 13 April 1929, Page 1 (Supplement)

COLLECTING.

A FASCINATING PURSUIT.

BY G.F.A.L.

One quality which has always been considered an essential part of the British character and culture, and has above all things enriched the national life, has been the care and affection for the things which arc old and mellowed by time. They may be queer traditions and picturesque customs which still survive in spite of changing times. They may be quaint timbered cottages or village inns with curious signs, or ancient castles and churches, old trees or walled-in gardens, books or wine, or the many things which to-day we call antiques." In all these tilings one reads chapters of our " rough island story," and they are valued because of their age, their style and beauty, and the associations which hang around them. This appreciation is more in evidence to-day than it has ever been in the history of our nation, and it is shared in some degree by all classes of the community. Rich men, such as the late Lord Leverhulme or Lord Iveagh, may spend their wealth in the acquisition of priceless pictures or other works of art, but many a cottager cherishes his lustre ware, his willow-pattern china or coloured prints, sought after to-day but costing years ago only a few pence. A certain Labour' leader, of international repute, and a coalminer, was a keen collector of antiques, and in his travels to meeting or conference would find time to seek out in some old shop a specimen to add to his treasures. Acquisitive Man. Man is an acquisitive animal, and to collect is a natural instinct. The British have no monopoly of this habit, though with them it is very strong. It is of all time and universal. To one it is a mild bobbv or even an investment, to another it is Jiii absorbing interest or a. consuming passion to which his life is subservient. Cousin Pons, one of Balzac's characters, would cadge his very food from friends in order to buy his bric-a-brac. Rembrandt died in poverty, partly through his love for buying old curios and treasures. Lorenzo the Magnificent, the greatest collector and art patron in history, spent his immense fortune in gathering together ancient manuscripts, vases, sculptures and pictures. I once knew a dealer who had the greatest difficulty in parting with the treasures in his shop, and would often tell the would-be purchaser at the last moment that the specimen was " not for sale," muttering to himself, "No! I'm blowed if you'll have it!"' That wonderful old roamer. Trader Horn, the " Ancient Mariner " of modern times, among his adventures with cannibals or trading in ivory " in the land of tho black man aud the elephant," found opportunity to send specimens and curios home to England. He tells us: " 1 could do very nicely with butterflies, too. Sent 'ein over ... to Horniman. One of the tea nabobs. He was like a boy with the butterflies, in spite of his business; he gave me £l2 for every one I caught." It is universally known that King George is an enthusiastic stampcollector; so were R. L. Stevenson, Jules Verne, and the great explorer Sven Hedin, not. to mention many famous personalities of to-day. Curio-Hunters of Old. Every civilisation in history has had its outstanding period of art and culture, which has become in its turn the huntingground for collectors of a later age.- The Romans had their " crazes " —articles of tortoiseshell, bronzes from Corinth, curios from the savage tribes they conquered, drinking cups, citrus-wood tables —the latter the hall-mark of a fashionable home. We, in our turn to-day, collect things which were the ordinary domestic utensils of the average Roman family. '1 he Greeks in their glory under Pericles have provided the world with some of its most priceless possessions. Byzantium at the height of its power was the source of most of tho luxury articles of Europe. Mr. Osborn, author of "Tho Middle Ages," says: "All the magnificence of Western feudalism, all the pageantry of church ritual, came out of its workshops. It set the fashion in every article of lavish living, from an Oriental perfume to a psalter with ivory covers, and from a damascened cuirass to a jewelled crown." These treasures can be seen in the great museums to-day, and I have before me now the following advertisement: and Indian Bronze for Sale . . . Cardiff." So it was in the time of Louis XIV., '"the Grand Monarch." Almost everyone in France with means collected something, and their hunting-ground was chietly Italy; but travellers went to the limits of the civilised world, risking dangers of land and sea, to satisfy the demands of France. England since the eighteenth century has collected the treasures of Europe and the East—Dutch and Italian pictures, French furniture, Flemish lace, " liunens " and pictures, foreign brocades, tapestries and silks, and porcelains from China and Japan. At the end of the nineteenth century English antiques became popular, and ever since the has steadily increased. '1 ho country has been combed for furniture, pictures, china, pewter, glass and old silver, among other things. The demand is on the increase in the Dominions, and is intense in America, and in the last few years works of art, old and new, first editions of famous books, and even national heirlooms, to the money value of millions of pounds, have crossed the Atlantic. Reasons for the Quest. Why are these things so treasured and why the scramble for those still procurable ? Many tilings are highly prized merely because they are rare, but the desire to possess many of the objects of bygone days is caused by the knowledge that the power to create them has been lost ; the spirit and inspiration have gone, perhaps for ever. Many were made by members of religious orders. The men who built the cathedrals and churches, those national heirlooms described as " frozen music," made also tho things to furnish and adorn them, numbers of which passed into secular use. These monks were the master-craftsmen of their day, and many of tho monasteries were the chief workshops of the middle ages. The life of praise and service, was reflected in the works of their hands. Many were made by tlip secular craftsmen and members of the guilds, who even up to the time of the Industrial Revolution were artists as well; who put personality, charm and beauty into the articles they made. Today no factory hand can turn them out, nor can they bo made by mass production. Craftsmanship has been almost annihilated by its enemies—commercialism and the all-conquerinc machine. These reminders of a bygone age dear to the hearts of collectors are becoming more scarce every year; the stock of genuine antiques is running low, and Mr. Rohan, the original of " Quinneys," talking in particular of furniture, says that within the next 15 to 20 years " all the old treasures will be in private collections or in local museums or galleries." Still, though it may be difficult to possess a monk's refectory table or carved oak chest, or a genuine masterpiece of Chippendale or Sheraton, or a carving by Grinling Gibbons, collecting will still maintain its fascination, and collectors will ever seek _fresh woods and pastures new in which to realise, the natural craving to possess and enjoy a thing of charm and beauty.