Hunting The Collectors

Between the 1870s and the 1930s competing European powers carved out and consolidated colonies in Melanesia, the most culturally diverse region of the world. As part of this process, great assemblages of ethnographic artefacts were made by a range of collectors whose diversity is captured in this volume. The contributors to this tightly-integrated volume take these collectors, and the collecting institutions, as the departure point for accounts that look back at the artefact-producing societies and their interaction with the collectors, but also forward to the fate of the collections in metropolitan museums, as the artefacts have been variously exhibited, neglected, re-conceived as indigenous heritage, or repatriated. In doing this, the contributors raise issues of current interest in anthropology, Pacific history, art history, museology, and material culture.

This volume investigates Pacific collections held in Australian museums, art galleries and archives, and the diverse group of 19th and 20th century collectors responsible for their acquisition. The nineteen essays reveal varied personal and institutional motivations that eventually led to the conservation, preservation and exhibition in Australia of a remarkable archive of Pacific Island material objects, art and crafts, photographs and documents. Hunting the Collectors benchmarks the importance of Pacific Collections in Australia and is a timely contribution to the worldwide renaissance of interest in Oceanic arts and cultures. The essays suggest that the custodial role is not fixed and immutable but fluctuates with the perceived importance of the collection, which in turn fluctuates with the level of national interest in the Pacific neighbourhood. This cyclical rise and fall of Australian interest in the Pacific Islands means many of the valuable early collections in state and later national repositories and institutions have been rarely exhibited or published. But, as the authors note, enthusiastic museum anthropologists, curators, collection managers and university-based scholars across Australia, and worldwide, have persisted with research on material collected in the Pacific. This volume is a very important one for anyone studying the art and material culture of the Pacific. It focuses on collections now in Australia. Even those well versed in museum collections from the Pacific will learn about many important but little-known collectors as well as better-known figures like the anthropologists F. E. Williams and Thomas Farrell, the husband of Queen Emma. This will be a treat for students and specialist alike. —Professor Robert L. Welsch, University of Dartmouth

This volume investigates Pacific collections held in Australian museums, art galleries and archives, and the diverse group of 19th and 20th century collectors responsible for their acquisition. The nineteen essays reveal varied personal and institutional motivations that eventually led to the conservation, preservation and exhibition in Australia of a remarkable archive of Pacific Island material objects, art and crafts, photographs and documents. Hunting the Collectors benchmarks the importance of Pacific Collections in Australia and is a timely contribution to the worldwide renaissance of interest in Oceanic arts and cultures. The essays suggest that the custodial role is not fixed and immutable but fluctuates with the perceived importance of the collection, which in turn fluctuates with the level of national interest in the Pacific neighbourhood. This cyclical rise and fall of Australian interest in the Pacific Islands means many of the valuable early collections in state and later national repositories and institutions have been rarely exhibited or published. But, as the authors note, enthusiastic museum anthropologists, curators, collection managers and university-based scholars across Australia, and worldwide, have persisted with research on material collected in the Pacific.

The collector is a pseudo sub-species of human who endeavours to amass items for building wealth, in the pursuit of a hobby or, in extreme cases, as a part of pathological hoarding behaviour. The extreme collector expands what could be considered normal boundaries in terms of using financial resources, encroachment of communal space in a shared home environment, or in the way they go about locating new items to acquire. The hoarder takes collecting to the next, even more extreme level, where the array or items gathered becomes arguably and uncontrollably massive enough to bring the hoarder much criticism from others, usually in the psychological sense. In comparison to the modern collector of things, the hunter-gatherer communities primarily from primitive times, but even today in remote parts of the world followed their collecting behaviour solely for their survival since agriculture and farming had not yet been invented. We refer to these people as foragers. The increasingly rare communities that follow a foraging lifestyle actually exist in the present day, albeit in isolated areas of the world with decreasing land mass; they collect what they need, experiencing increased difficulty in protecting their coveted anonymity. Even when they cross paths with members of modern society, they shun interaction and may even threaten warfare. Modern foraging communities have no immunity to modern diseases, making contact with modern humans threatening to their health and survival. The mindset of todays collector can be compared to that of the primitive foragers as a way of drawing a link between their behaviour and impulses to those of modern humans, suggesting a possible genetic link. In doing so, the psychodynamic aspects of the collector in modern times can be better understood through the anthropological lens. With this connection, therapists can more deeply understand and appreciate the thought process of the modern collector and maybe even that of the hoarder. Families of collectors and hoarders and even the folks collecting and hoarding themselves can evaluate their lifestyle, habits, impulses and drives more deeply, affording them a practical and humanistic view of themselves. The perspectives of the author, who is a self-confessed collector and those of other collectors as well as one hoarder provide a balanced analysis of the interiority of the subject covered by this book. A walkthrough of various types of collections is included along with an illustrative of the thesis. Part of the authors collection of mineral spheres is included in an appendix to provide the reader with a first-hand view of one type of collection. What is hopefully clear to the reader is that the mindset of the collector should not be quickly judged, but carefully evaluated and the collector or hoarder is encouraged to keep an open mind, embracing a new conceptual understanding of the actions they take in pursuit of their passion or obsession. The topic of mental illness is covered to allow for the potential for judgment of the behaviour to be understood for potential treatment protocols. Caution, however, is encouraged with regard to treatment as not every person considered obsessed with their passion is willing to acknowledge their excessive conduct or even would agree their behaviour reaches an obsessive level. Accordingly, treatment as we may think of the word as necessarily leading to reform or reduction in impact may not be possible even with greater insight. Still, we must find a balance between respecting someones chosen lifestyle and suggesting a balanced approach to life that considers not only the person, but those around them as well.

A celebration of 78 rpm record subculture reveals the growing value of rare records and the determined efforts of their collectors and archivists, exploring the music of blues artists who have been lost to the modern world.

John Tamberlain is The Tomahawk, the universe’s most feared food critic – though he himself prefers the term ‘forensic gastronomer’. He’s on a quest, in search of the much-storied Hotel Grand Skies, a secretive and exclusive haven where the rich and famous retreat to bask in perfect seclusion. A place where the waiters know their fish knife from their butter knife, their carotid from their subclavian artery, and are trained to enforce the house rules with brutal efficiency. Blurring the lines between detective story, horror and sci-fi, Hunters & Collectors is a mesmeric trip into the singular imagination of M. Suddain – a freewheeling talent whose poise, invention and sensational sentences have already earned him comparisons to Vonnegut, Pynchon and Douglas Adams.

My essays and escapades span over thirty years of rare book hunting--an exciting journey that is ongoing. Many of my friends are rare book people, and much of my free time revolves around bookish pursuits. I can't recall a day without thinking about a book and seldom without handling one. I write regularly on my blog about rare books I've found and their history. Recently, my wife and I began plans to expand our library space by converting the attic above the garage, so it seems inevitable that the book you hold in your hand would come to fruition. If you're already a rare book hunter no further prelude is needed. If you have found this book through curiosity or happenstance, and it creates a spark within, I strongly encourage you to follow your own book hunting path. The rewards are great and the space concerns never-ending. Kurt Zimmerman is a highly regarded book collector and author. He has been collecting for over thirty years in two areas: association items related to book collecting history (currently 7,000+ items) and first editions of Latin American literature (over 2,000 items). He received his Master's in Library and Information Science degree from UT-Austin while completing a three year internship at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center. There he learned bibliography and rare books from the best in the field. He worked in the rare book trade and as director of the rare books & maps department at Butterfield & Butterfield auction house (now Bonham's) in San Francisco. Zimmerman is a co-founder of the Book Hunters Club of Houston. His established is popular blog bookcollectinghistory.com in 2011. The author can be reached directly at [email protected].

Thanks to Salem sea captains, Gilded Age millionaires, curators on horseback and missionaries gone native, North American museums now possess the greatest collections of Chinese art outside of East Asia itself. How did it happen? The China Collectors is the first full account of a century-long treasure hunt in China from the Opium Wars and the Boxer Rebellion to Mao Zedong's 1949 ascent. The principal gatherers are mostly little known and defy invention. They included "foreign devils" who braved desert sandstorms, bandits and local warlords in acquiring significant works. Adventurous curators like Langdon Warner, a forebear of Indiana Jones, argued that the caves of Dunhuang were already threatened by vandals, thereby justifying the removal of frescoes and sculptures. Other Americans include George Kates, an alumnus of Harvard, Oxford and Hollywood, who fell in love with Ming furniture. The Chinese were divided between dealers who profited from the artworks' removal, and scholars who sought to protect their country's patrimony. Duanfang, the greatest Chinese collector of his era, was beheaded in a coup and his splendid bronzes now adorn major museums. Others in this rich tapestry include Charles Lang Freer, an enlightened Detroit entrepreneur, two generations of Rockefellers, and Avery Brundage, the imperious Olympian, and Arthur Sackler, the grand acquisitor. No less important are two museum directors, Cleveland's Sherman Lee and Kansas City's Laurence Sickman, who challenged the East Coast's hegemony. Shareen Blair Brysac and Karl E. Meyer even-handedly consider whether ancient treasures were looted or salvaged, and whether it was morally acceptable to spirit hitherto inaccessible objects westward, where they could be studied and preserved by trained museum personnel. And how should the US and Canada and their museums respond now that China has the means and will to reclaim its missing patrimony?