Posted by Steve Price on March 20, 1999 at 07:01:22:
In Reply to: anti-collector posted by Katharine Hawks on March 20, 1999 at 00:54:35:
Dear Katherine,
You have described what I think is the major element in rug collecting in the most eloquent of terms. Give or take a quibble here and there, it probably describes the dominant motives of most collectors.
The "negative" motivations in much of the discussion so far are, I believe, quite secondary to most collectors and primary for very few.
To pick just one nit, Benjamin's quote includes "a real collector, a collector as he ought to be --". The "ought to be" part is clearly a value judgment of collector types. That is, he asserts that certain kinds of collectors are better (more nearly as they ought to be) than others. Almost any collector has a perfect right to take the position that collecting is his/her neurosis, and as long as nobody else is getting hurt, the exact form in which it is manifested is not a moral issue.
Apart from this, I join the congregation in a hearty "Amen".
Regards,
Steve Price