Collecting and antiques books
Collecting and antiques books to start from. Open one to see books like it, or tell BookSense what you loved for four picks made for you.
Start here
New to the genre? These 5 are the books to read first.
The Hare with Amber Eyes
Edmund De WaalA family memoir built around a collection of over 260 Japanese netsuke, tracing how the objects passed through a Jewish banking family in Vienna and were lost and recovered across the 20th century.
Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder
Lawrence WeschlerA account of the Museum of Jurassic Technology in Los Angeles and its curator David Wilson, which examines how museums and cabinets of curiosities present the strange and the real.
On Collecting
Susan PearceA study of the act of collecting, its emotional and social motives, and how objects gain meaning through their assembly into a collection.
Unpacking My Library
Walter BenjaminA short essay on the collector's relation to his books and possessions, often cited in writing about collecting as personal and historical.
Foreign Devils on the Silk Road
Peter HopkirkAn account of Western explorers and archaeologists who removed manuscripts and artefacts from Central Asia, a useful case study of how collecting and antiquities trade intersect with empire and ethics.
Chosen and described with AI from our notes on the genre.
More collecting and antiques books
- The System of Objects
The System of ObjectsJean Baudrillard - Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American sla
Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American slaveFrederick Douglass1845 - Van Gogh
Van GoghFederico Zeri1937 - The big book of buttons
The big book of buttonsElizabeth Hughes1991 - Leonardo Da Vinci and the Splendor of Poland
Leonardo Da Vinci and the Splendor of PolandLaurie Winters2002 - Swiss timepiece makers, 1775-1975
Swiss timepiece makers, 1775-1975Kathleen H. Pritchard1997 - Minerals of Washington
Minerals of WashingtonBart Cannon1974 - The $12 million stuffed shark
The $12 million stuffed sharkDonald N. Thompson2008 - Martin Zweig's winning on Wall Street
Martin Zweig's winning on Wall StreetMartin E. Zweig1986 - Goins's encyclopedia of cutlery markingsGoins's encyclopedia of cutlery markingsJohn E. Goins1986
- Fountain Pens of the World
Fountain Pens of the WorldAndreas Lambrou1995 - Collectible costume jewelry
Collectible costume jewelryS. Sylvia Henzel1987