To Have and to HoldFrom amassing sacred relics to collecting celebrity memorabilia, the impulse to hoard has gripped humankind throughout the centuries. But what is it that drives people to possess objects that have no conceivable use? To Have and To Hold is a captivating tour of collectors and their treasures from medieval times to the present, from a cabinet containing unicorn horns and a Tsar's collection of teeth to the macabre art of embalmer Dr. Frederick Ruysch, the fabled castle of William Randolph Hearst, and the truly preoccupied men who stockpile food wrappers and plastic cups. An engrossing story of the collector as bridegroom, deliriously, obsessively happy, wed to his possessions, till death do us part. |
Contents
The Dragon and the Tartar Lamb | 13 |
A Melancholy Ailment | 27 |
An Ark Abducted | 50 |
Copyright | |
16 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
To Have and to Hold: An Intimate History Of Collectors and Collecting Philipp Blom Limited preview - 2004 |
To Have and to Hold: An Intimate History of Collectors and Collecting Philipp Blom No preview available - 2003 |
Common terms and phrases
Aldrovandi amassed Amsterdams Historisch Museum anatomical Angelo Soliman animals antiquities artists Ashmole beauty birds body bones Browne cabinet of curiosities castle catalogue century collection collector contained corpse court dealer death Denon display Dominique Vivant Denon dragon Duveen Elias Ashmole emperor engraving entire Europe everything exhibits famous France Frederik Ruysch French gallery gardens German glass Habsburg hand head holy human Ibid idea kind permission king kitsch Kunsthistorisches Museum later Leiden living London look manuscripts memory mind museum Napoleon Narrenturm Natural History never objects paintings palace Paris passion Philipp Blom pieces plants possession precious prince rarities relics reliquary Renaissance reproduced by kind royal Rudolf Rudolf II Ruysch scholars seems seen skeleton skulls Sloane Sloane's Soane specimens St Petersburg stone symbolic theatre theatrum anatomicum things thought Tradescant Tradescant's treasures Ulisse Aldrovandi Vienna Viglius visitors walls