THE
PLEASURES
OF
COLLECTING
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Courtesy Metropolitan Museum of Art
Early American Mahogany Block-Front Cabinet-Top, Rhode Island StyleDesk, 1750-1775
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THE
PLEASURES
OF
COLLECTING
BY
GARDNER TEALL
excursions in the realm
of antiques and curios,
American, European,
and Oriental
New York
The Century Company
1920
Copyright, 1920, by
The Century Co.
TO
MY SISTER
FRANCES COTHEAL TEALL
IN LOVING MEMORY
DEAR READER
Your true collector does not apologize for his hobbies; he exalts theirvirtues. Necessity may occasionally compel him to resort to thecamouflage of mid-interest, as when his family is not in sympathy withhis pursuits; or, again, as when fate has placed him in arid communionwith unsympathetic associates, individuals whose personalities havedeveloped independently of their souls, leaving them pronounced in thedirections they invariably select; directions, in consequence,invariably divergent from those paths which the true collector loves totread.
While not secretive by nature, and by the same nature eager to share hisjoys with his fellow-beings, the true collector is endowed, more oftenthan not, with a certain intuitive perception which enables him toappreciate the futility of hoping to convert the unequipped infidel tothe solaces of his own faith in the delights of the lares and penates ofanother generation, an intuition which warns him to protect his peace ofmind by harmlessly appearing to accept with good grace thecommonplacenesses undoubtedly enjoyed by the many, but with no culpablerenunciation of his own lively interest in the quaint and curiousmementos of the world of yesterdays, a world i