Collecting Books

Amazon Best of the Month, December 2008: One of the oddest memoirs of the year may well be the best. William Davies King is a theater professor who over his fifty-plus years has gathered, in countless binders and boxes, a vast collection of things nobody else wants: cat-food labels, chain ...more

Learn to think, talk, buy and sell like an expert! • Learn what to collect, how to recognize a fake and how to evaluate the price of a watch. • All the information you need to understand the differences among watch brands, the different parts of a watch, and how ...more

Ready to upgrade your artwork from framed Monet posters but intimidated by what you see in galleries? In The Intrepid Art Collector, Lisa Hunter shows you how to start a fine art collection without spending a fortune. This accessible, jargon-free resource contains up-to-date information on the most popular original art—everything ...more

From amassing sacred relics to collecting celebrity memorabilia, the impulse to hoard has gripped humankind throughout the centuries. But what is it that drives people to possess objects that have no conceivable use? To Have and To Hold is a captivating tour of collectors and their treasures from medieval times ...more

Words from the wise: insiders’ tips on how to navigate the art market like a pro Art is about life, the art market is about money. —Damien Hirst Whether you’re an art fan, aficionado, or collector, this completely unique book should be on your required reading list. Like a textbook ...more

Money and power in the contemporary art world of dealers, collectors, artists and museums. Funny, bitchy, insightful, revealing — it changed the way the art world did business. "A lot of dynamite." —John Canady "Gossipy reading that explodes a well-documented firecracker." —Publishers Weekly "Delicious reading." —Hal Burton ...more

Collecting Japanese Antiques shows what makes Japanese aesthetics so different from other countries. Antique hunters will benefit from the practical and cautionary advice in this book; newcomers will appreciate information on the basics of collecting; while other sections might reawaken interest in experienced collectors. Striking photographs highlight the beauty and ...more

Only a few weeks before his 1890 suicide, Vincent van Gogh painted a portrait of Paul-Ferdinand Gachet, a local physician the painter had been fruitlessly consulting about his depression. Upon his death, the painting, like much of van Gogh's work, went to his brother, Theo. A few years later, Theo's ...more

According to author Marilynn Gelfman Karp, collecting is a calling; and those who are driven to collect unloved objects are the purest collectors of all. In this literary and sophisticated celebration of humble objects, Karp shares her passionate insights on what she calls the "rapture of the capture." In Flagrante ...more

An extraordinary treasure trove of fabulous necklaces, bracelets, rings, brooches, and earrings owned by the rich and famous. For many centuries the collecting of precious gems and the jewelry fashioned from them was the exclusive prerogative of kings and queens, emperors, popes, and maharajahs. But in the last hundred years ...more