Collecting?

We’re in waiting mode here. The first part of the election in France, then the general election here on Thursday, and then the second part for France later in July. I have two samples I’m working on but I’ve put them aside until after the 4^th of July.

I don’t really collect things, even perfume. But, I’ve lived with collectors (books) and currently live next door to people who are hoarders. So, every once in a while I think about the attraction of collecting.

My now gone ex-husband collected books. I had the task of packing them when we moved from Brooklyn to the UK (everything went into storage initially). That was a lot of boxes. Now, I’d have the sense to say to him ‘get your company to get packers in – I’m not doing this’. Back then, I just packed them (he was in the Netherlands working while all this was happening – he’d gotten an intercompany transfer so we could move to the UK from NY and he used this as a way to get the company to pay for the moving costs).

Although I didn’t really get the attraction of shelves and piles full of books I did buy him books as gifts and got vicarious pleasure from his reaction when I had been able to find something rare he’d been after for years (thank you, Strand bookstore).

Over the years I’ve received and inherited jewellery. However, (again over the years) some of the most cherished pieces disappeared in burglaries (curse you, NYC). Sometimes things could be replaced with something else; sometimes there was no replacing – they were just gone.

My mother loved snake rings. But interestingly all those rings (and she had loads) were costume. When she died and I inherited her jewellery I didn’t keep those because I had other things from her that had been in the family for generations or that my father had given her. I found it perplexing that he’d never gifted her with a proper snake ring. His taste in jewellery was very good and over their marriage he gave her lots of lovely things, much of which (thank goodness) I still have.

So, over time since her death I’ve added things to my ‘collection’ with an eye to maintaining a smallish but choice grouping of jewellery: a silver lost wax process seashell charm and necklace, square cut emerald post earrings, and most recently a proper snake ring, an ouroboros. An ouroboros is a snake holding its tail in its mouth representing creation and destruction, ie, eternity.

Along with jewellery, I inherited my maternal line’s collection of ceramic ornaments. I particularly love a ballerina my mother adored and two love birds. A year or so ago I noticed that British cookbook writer Nigel Slater, who I’ve written about here, had a ceramic vegetable on his kitchen table. So, as the company that made the item was listed in the article, off I went to look. I am now coveting a Festival squash made by Penkridge Ceramics (  https://www.penkridgeceramics.com/  ). Or maybe an artichoke. Next Christmas or birthday, I think.

A few years ago, I bought a small glass pumpkin which a fairly local glass blowing company offered at Halloween (interestingly, this item has become one of their best sellers since release – who knew so many people in this country coveted pumpkins). I have a very old small Eiffel Tower I think I bought while traveling during university, and my son has gifted me a Statue of Liberty and a ceramic Amsterdam canal house from his travels.

(no clue about the red ribbon but it’s been on the
tower forever and I can’t think of a reason to remove it)

So that’s me and my small bits of collecting. What about you?

Beyond perfume, are you a collector and of what? If you’re not, are there a small number of objects that have deep meaning which have moved through life with you?

Pics: Pexels and mine