Collecting:- opinions sought

[Jussi M.]

Greetings.

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

Q1.

does knowledge of the society, culture and history from which a collected item come enhance the pursuit of collecting those items?

Maybe. I would say it does if one learns to appreciate the s, c & h with the accumulation of knowledge on said, but it can also result in dissolving the mystery that surrounds the collectable items and thus killing the suspense, and, incidentally interest.

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

Q2.

if the response to Q1. is "yes, it does", is it a reasonable expectation that the majority of collectors would attempt to improve their knowledge in these areas

No. Not really as people are lazy. In other words people usually want to know but not learn. These are two different things and not to be interpreted as one. Look at any field of expertise and you´ll see that true aficionados are a rare breed.

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

Q3.

if the response to Q1. is "no, it does not", can the reasons why it does not be identified ?

As stated above:
Laziness and the motives for collecting, as the motives for collecting are not the same as the motives for learning about s, c & h. Yes, the motives for collecting and the motives for learning s, c & h can and do meet and feed each other but to a what degree? Collecting something makes one an expert in the fine art of acquisition. - Not an expert of the society, culture nor history of the time and place where the collectable items originally sprang from. Being a fan is not the same as being a musician.

Converting does happen but it is a rare occasion as the psychological price for jumping of the "collecting wagon" to a new wagon of s, c & h studies is just too steep a step as it would mean questioning your motives.

My opinions only.

Thanks,

J.

[A. G. Maisey]

Thanks Jussi, you've made some good points there.

Possibly if the collector has entered into specifically keris collecting with a mystical/magical motivation, yes, perhaps the reality might be a little to much to bear and interest could be lost, but as I remarked in a previous post, I was not targeting keris collecting with my question, I was targeting collecting. In general. Orange peels. Cow pats. Red Cross badges. Stamps. Original Rembrandts. The whole sphere of collecting.

Lets say I'm a cow pat collector. Surely I would want to know what difference age, diet, geographical location, drying time --- & etc & etc & etc made to the form and consistency of the cow pat. Serious business cow pat collecting.

I feel that the "want to ", but "too lazy to learn" is probably absolutely spot on. As a teacher your professional opinion in this is clearly an informed opinion and I reckon you've hit the nail on the head. Mostly people want information served up on a platter. Preferably a silver platter. Not a lot of people are prepared to do the digging to find the gold, they want it left in their letterbox.

And yes again:- having an appreciation of music is a very long way from making music.

I feel you've given us a very nice little analysis of human nature here Jussi.

The simple fact of it is that not everybody needs to be an expert to appreciate something, we can appreciate the object in an almost total lack of knowledge about the background of the object.