Why do we collect?

In 1974 the Italian writer Italo Calvino wrote an essay called ‘Collection of Sand…

Cairo to London, 1867

By Rachel Beckles Willson England’s first oud arrived in 1867 thanks to some obscure international diplomacy involving Ismail Pasha, the Khedive of Egypt. The French state mounted its second Exposition Universelle in Paris that year, and it involved not only massive displays of French industry, but also exhibits from other nations. Many of these presented…