This is an interesting,
well-written book about top end collecting in Victorian England, nicely
presented with big print and proper spacing. The arguments are developed
through case studies of five wealthy and determined collectors and particular
emphasis is given to the developing relationships between private collectors and
public collecting institutions (museums, art galleries). Two of Yallop’s collectors
double as public servants and one as a dealer. The chapter on Charlotte
Schreiber is the most interesting, especially when it develops a modest but
well-grounded account of how and why
some forms of collecting were consistently regarded as the preserve of men but
some niches were offered to female collectors in areas like chinaware. I would
have thought a monograph could be made out of this chapter. There is no
discussion of lower forms of collecting and though this is a book about
Victorian England, the words “stamp collecting" nowhere appear.
The title is
misleading. All of her subjects move away
from magpie collecting towards a more informed and structured approach. None are hoarders in
any pathological sense. Though they benefit from the proceeds of Imperial
looting expeditions, they generally display a high degree of probity in their
actions.
There is one puzzling discussion
of fakes in chapter 17 where the example chosen (a bust of Flora attributed to da Vinci) is not in any obvious sense a fake or
a forgery, just work someone has done to amuse himself; no one appears to pass it off as a da Vinci. The narrative offered supports only
the conclusion that the work was misattributed; no one seems to have had any
intent to defraud. Indeed, the principal victim is the expert who attributed it in the first place.
I noticed a couple of
mistakes. At page 264, “George III” should read “George IV”. At page 281 a
mid-century transatlantic crossing time of fifty days is given. With the introduction
and development of steamships, crossing time dropped from about ten days in the
1850s to about seven days in the 1880s.
