What do you collect?

[CallOnMeBaby]

Just that really. Tell me about your collections. I have always been fascinated by people who collect things. What they collect. Do they display them. How attached are you too them. Will they be left to someone once you're gone.

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie 😂

I have a general stamp collection which I started as a child.
I collect books on Polar exploration, Samuel Pepys and T E Lawrence.
I also have an almost complete set of The Left Book Club books of the 20s /30s.
I also collect old paint boxes.
I gave away hundreds of novels and history books.

I once met a woman who said she didn’t understand people who collect things but then she said she had 100 pairs of shoes.

@Cocoandcleo - thank you so much!

Postcards and souvenirs from a castle that I can see from my house. I started off with just general postcards but now only collect antique cards which have been written and posted over 100yrs ago. The social history is amazing.

The souvenirs (also antique) are lovely - fruit bowls, plates, coins. I also volunteer at the castle, I'm a bit obsessed!

I collect rugby league pin badges, have been collecting them for 21 years and have nearly 150. They're on display on a corkboard in my house.

I also collecting me to you bears (soft and ornament), but they're not all on display at the moment as I need some new shelves for them. I've been collecting them for about 18 years. My favourite one is a 4 part train ornament, I saved up all my paper round money and birthday money to pay for that, I think it came to £125 ish in total!

Crystals and fossils.

Model campervans.

Babushka dolls (russian stacking dolls)
Old maps
Crystals/stones
Pebbles
Sea glass
Sea pottery
Emma Bridgewater
Le Cruset
Fridge magnets from everywhere I visit
Erasers from gift shops of museums
Cosmetics/skincare etc
Murano type glass/coloured glass
Books- various categories, antiquarian going back over 200 years, some first editions, other niche sub categories
Charles Rennie Mackintosh style things

I've also inherited a coin collection going back before Victoria, stamps and WW2 memorabilia.

I've always been a little envious of people who actively collect things; It seems like it offers a lot of purpose (in the finding and procuring) and then pleasure (in the keeping/getting out to look at/displaying). I don't collect anything at all personally and have no urge to do it but as I say, sort of wish I did. So interesting to hear about what people are passionate about and enjoy.

When I was a child I collected all sorts of things and loved doing it so it's doubly strange to me that that whim has completely disappeared for me as an adult.

So I may have tipsily accidentally ordered myself a job lot of 9 compacts from eBay. 😄

Craft materials that I then discover I'm useless at!

Also, Emma Bridgewater mugs with Royal things on. Some think they're tacky but I quite like them. My mum and sister buy them for me so it's quite nice.

Hearts and tears baby 😉

Actually no I do not collect anything. I hate 'things'.

We do this! Have ours in various places around the house and garden but also in pockets/bags.

Antique jelly moulds, preferably ceramic. Unusual designs especially.
1960s Pyrex, in "June Rose" pattern.
Old London postcards.

I don't collect i hoarde! I have close to 200 Wade Turtles and my garage is stuffed full of vintage and specific types and makes of clothing. I also collect Bunnykins cups and plates and have dozens. I display these as well as my turtles. My Little Ponies, creepy vintage Jack in A Boxes and Toys. Glass vintage baubles.
I have previously collected soda syphons, vintage tea sets, vintage cake stands. I also collect dead things as i'm a hobbyist taxidermist/maker of wet speccimens. I'm not emotionally connectedvto any of this junk and often get rid, then find a new obsession. Oh, I've just started collectng brooches.

I've inherited a stamp and coin collection which came with the house.

I collect midcentury china - teasets, dinner plates and the like. My favourite patterns include Meakin Topic, Midwinter Roselle etc - any kind of modern stylised florals.
I don't spend a lot on it, it's just whatever I can pick up in charity shops and eBay for fairly cheap. Luckily everything I've bought from eBay so far has arrived in one piece!
My teasets and milk jugs are on display in shelves beside my dining table. My Midwinter Sienna dinner set that I inherited from my great aunt is in daily use so lives in the kitchen cupboards.

I collect Rilakkuma stuff. Its a Japanese character, a bear. I have various bears but also lots of themed kitchen stuff like saucepans, plates, bowls etc. Even a pancake maker!

Also "rement" sets, which are cute miniatures. Lego, I have a few sets of. I'm a bit of a child really. But it makes me happy.

I've already done the talk with adult DC about what will be worth selling and the best place to sell it. I'm a maximalist so I like having lots of things on display.

Religious Icons
Fossils
Rocks and minerals

@StridTheKiller will you leave them with the house when you eventually come to leave yourself?

What a lovely thread.

I collect things that humans from the past have thrown into gardens. There are pottery sherds, clay pipes, slate pencils, a Victorian ink bottle, buttons, marbles, coins, an English civil war belt buckle, shoe segs, oyster shells, the occasional piece of human-worked flint, iridescent glass. Apart from the human-made things, fossils. They're on shelves in a glass fronted cabinet known as The Cabinet of Treasures. Garden soils tell a story of what's happened there in the past and I enjoy thinking about that.

OH collects hag stones and puts them on key rings who are out of sorts, telling them it'll keep witches away.

Fantastic thread.

I have always collected magnets for my fridge whenever I visit a new place. The memories they evoke are lovely.

During lockdown one. I started collecting vintage tea sets, table cloths, glasses. I also collect books. At the moment I am collecting housekeeping books from different eras. The housekeeping books have been a eye opener. Those women were hardy. It's made me realise how lucky I am, a quick scoot of method and a wipe that's the job done. It also frustrates me though because a lot of there cleaning methods were long and pointless.

I collect vintage children's books, specifically girls school stories. I have a full set of Chalet School first editions, mostly with dustjackets, as well as near complete hardback collections of books by Elsie Oxenham (only three missing), Dorita Fairlie Bruce, Mabel Esther Allan, L M Montgomery, Lorna Hill, Angela Brazil and many more. They're all displayed upstairs. I have many more books downstairs, but a much more mixed collection. I have friends who I'll leave them to, who'll appreciate them and their value.

Literally nothing - don't really understand the urge tbh I have things I like but I don't feel the need to buy lots of them.

I've got a collection of scale models of Ford Mustangs. (I'd love a real one but it's not happening so I started with the models.) I love them disproportionately

Re the 'why' of collecting. For me the urge to collect the items I pick up is curiosity. I'll pick up a sherd of pottery and wonder how old it might be, so go and look up the pattern to see where that places it historically. What were people's homes like then? Well, let's have a look at some old paintings to find out. Might this piece have been made or used by one of my ancestors? Who knows, but it's enjoyable to think about it. And it's cheap too, all I have to do is look.