I am no expert on contemporary art but, if you look across the span of collecting as a whole, there are all kinds of fascinating highways and byways that are ignored. One of my passions is for wallets, purses and messenger bags from 17th c onwards, which are finely created and often beautifully embossed. You really are holding history in your hands. What would you consider to be one of their equivalents in the world of contemporary art, exquisitely rendered, attractively priced but slightly off the beaten track?!
That's really hard to narrow down because there is so much! The whole contemporary craft market, for example, is probably undervalued compared to the contemporary art market, although that's beginning to change. I think that collections like yours that contain period items that have continued or new resonance today are fascinating. I wrote an article a while back, for example, on how more collectors are becoming interested in ancient and rare maps because we're constantly looking at maps on our phones these days. We've all become expert consumers of cartography!
I am no expert on contemporary art but, if you look across the span of collecting as a whole, there are all kinds of fascinating highways and byways that are ignored. One of my passions is for wallets, purses and messenger bags from 17th c onwards, which are finely created and often beautifully embossed. You really are holding history in your hands. What would you consider to be one of their equivalents in the world of contemporary art, exquisitely rendered, attractively priced but slightly off the beaten track?!
That's really hard to narrow down because there is so much! The whole contemporary craft market, for example, is probably undervalued compared to the contemporary art market, although that's beginning to change. I think that collections like yours that contain period items that have continued or new resonance today are fascinating. I wrote an article a while back, for example, on how more collectors are becoming interested in ancient and rare maps because we're constantly looking at maps on our phones these days. We've all become expert consumers of cartography!