Thank you Barry and Jean.
It seems that everybody agrees that the act of collecting, is enhanced by knowledge of the background to the article collected.
It also seems that once we get past that initial recognition that knowledge enhances collection everybody seems to take a slightly different position.
As I stated at the outset:- I asked these questions to help my own understanding, and I appreciate the contribution you people are making to that understanding. I'm not yet quite sure what I am learning from this exercise, but it is re-enforcing a point of view that I have held for many years, and that is that the majority of collectors in any field are primarily that:- collectors. They have little interest in the objects that they collect apart from the physical being of the objects. The background to those objects seems to be something that is not of very much interest, and hence receives much less attention than the objects.
I feel that not only am I learning something here, but we all are, so I do hope that the opinions will continue to flow.
Thank you.
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