Collecting Books

This book is an useful and invaluable resource for both collectors and dealers of Native American art forms. Focusing on the traditional works of the Southwest, such as silver jewelry, beadwork, quillwork, pottery, rugs, baskets, fetish carvings, and katsina dolls, collectors are offered guidelines to help them identify quality in ...more

This important book showcases institutional and private efforts to collect, document, and preserve African American art in American’s fourth largest city, Houston, Texas. Eminent historian John Hope Franklin’s essay reveals his passionate commitment to collect African American art, while curator Alvia J. Wardlaw discusses works by Robert S. Duncanson, Henry ...more

The cabinets of obsessive Renaissance collectors were filled with rhinoceros horns encrusted with rubies and jaws of gigantic fish, stuffed birds in the most extraordinary colors, and glorious sea shells of all descriptions. Today’s collectors amass everything from Picassos to Pez dispensers. But why? In To Have and To Hold, ...more

A book on connoisseurship launches the new Winterthur Decorative Arts Series. Utilizing the unparalleled resources of the Winterthur collection and staff, these books will provide a unique forum of how-to advice for novices and experts alike. ...more

Originally printed in 1987, The Bottle Book is designed for the cultural historian, the bottle collector, and those just interested in pharmacopoeia. This book is a guide to the identification of the embossed, patent and proprietary medicine bottles produced in an era of American history when anything could be bottled, ...more

This book traces the psychology, history, and theory of the compulsion to collect. As well as institutional collections it considers those that reflect a fascination with the ephemeral, exotic, or just plain curious. "[A] brilliant book . . . a good read. Analysis of the relationship of collecting to identity, ...more

At Home with Art is about art lovers, their passion for art, and their seemingly unquenchable desire to bring home the works that have captured their hearts. Whether the artworks are Picassos or posters, these people want to acquire and live with the art they love. "I wake up in ...more