Thursday 28 August 2014

The Colour Collaborative: August: Collection

In the middle of the lovely Stratford Park at Stroud, there's a 17th century wool merchant's mansion, now a museum.


Inside are treasures.



Collections of little things, lovingly, and dare I say obsessively amassed by the Victorians amongst others, who just loved to collect things and then show them off.  I always head for this chest of drawers.


Inside are all sorts of exquisite things from the natural world.




There are drawers of beetles, birds' eggs and butterflies.  None of which I would want to see collected today.  But here they are, these beautiful collections, and it is right that they are preserved.  While it is no longer acceptable to plunder the natural world to satisfy our curiosity and provide a talking point, it is essential to look after the things that have been taken in the past.  While photos and film are wonderful media for showing natural history to the world, nothing can match actually seeing that iridescent sheen on the carapace of a tiny beetle or the subtle speckles on a bird's egg or the stunning colours of a butterfly's wing.


To fully appreciate the miracles of nature, you have to see for yourself.  You have to stand inches away from all of those colours and just gaze at the way they contrast, blend, change and pattern.









I won't deny that I have mixed feelings about the collections, but to destroy them would seem terrible.  Nothing can bring back the life that was taken, but by displaying these beautiful things knowledge and respect are spread.  People come here to draw them, to learn about them and just to be amazed by them.  Tiny, perfect, natural works of art.  So many of the colours are muted, blending in with the world's earthy palette.  Favourite colours of mine, the subtlest of greens, the most delicate of blues, creams of every shade, from a bone white to a rich buttery gold.  Pale eggs splashed in rock shades of brown and grey, each one utterly unique, each brush stroke unlike any which came before.

Elsewhere in the room are different things.  I always like to look at the coins and try and imagine what life was like when they were first minted.  Some are black and softly eroded, some gleam dully and one or two still hold on to the silver shine of treasure despite the many hundreds of years they have seen.




Many of the labels were made by the original collectors.  Along with the collections there are notebooks and journals kept by the people who spent a good part of their lives looking for these items.  They are a fascinating glimpse into life long ago.  I envy collectors their knowledge and enthusiasm.  How wonderful it must be to know so much about one subject, to really study it in depth, to be an authority on it and to happily spend your life pursuing knowledge of it.


A collection can start quite without warning, without you even realising.  And little by little it builds into something that is far more than the sum of its parts.  When you put things side by side, you notice the details far more and you gain a deeper understanding of your subject.  A serious collection is a thing of beauty and importance.  Something that human nature, with our enquiring minds and a thirst for knowledge, is often inclined to make.  Tell me, do you have a collection, or do you wish you could make one?  What would it be?  I'd love to hear.

To visit the other Colour Collaborative blogs for more of this month's posts just click on the links below: 

       Annie at Annie Cholewa                                        Gillian at Tales from a Happy House

       Sandra at Cherry Heart                                         Jennifer at Thistlebear

And August's guest poster, Caroline at Scraps of Us

What is the Colour Collaborative?

All creative bloggers make stuff, gather stuff, shape stuff, and share stuff. Mostly they work on their own, but what happens when a group of them work together? Is a creative collaboration greater than the sum of its parts? We think so and we hope you will too. We'll each be offering our own monthly take on a colour related theme, and hoping that in combination our ideas will encourage us, and perhaps you, to think about colour in new ways.

28 comments:

  1. All of this is wonderful and interesting.. but when you got to the ancient coins you caught my attention bigtime! A coin from 925!! Oh my! I'd like one of those! ((hugs)), Teresa :-)

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  2. It looks a really interesting place to visit. I seem to have acquired a collection of yarn and card making materials - does that count?! :) x

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  3. I agree with you totally that it is unacceptable to take these things from nature now, but that we should care for those things that were taken in the past. It reminds us not to take them now and also allows for their study without more being removed from the countryside. It is amazing how these were displayed, so carefully and precisely, it must have taken an awful long time. xx

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  4. Like you I hate the idea of collecting such creatures now but those that have already been saved and so beautifully displayed make a treasure trove of items for us to see close to in all their wonderful detail. The beautifully written labels are in themselves a work of art too. I'd love to visit that place for myself. I have a collection of blue glass bottles - nothing of any value but various different bottles and jars all in that lovely dark blue of Bristol Glass each one on its own would be something for the recycling bin as indeed was the first one I saved but collectively they do look good all together.

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  5. Like you have very mixed feelings but as you say what is done is done. I'm just glad it isn't being done nowadays

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  6. I love the way that, at first, these things all seem to be similar in colour, but when you look more closely there is a rainbow of colour variation going on. I have a drawer bursting with fabric scraps, but I think to call it a collection gives it more status than it deserves! x

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  7. It's both lovely and dreadful at the same time to see the insect collections. If we carry on destroying the planet at the current rate perhaps one day they will serve to remind us of what we have lost.

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  8. I'd like to have a garden big enough for a national collections of plants but then I'm not sure which plant to have a national collection of.

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  9. It is fascinating to see these things up close but yes, it does feel very wrong to see butterflies packed into a draw these days doesn't it. Although they would have thought nothing of it. I do think that collections can satisfy some part of human nature in some way. The I want to own/conquer/rule everything part maybe?

    S x

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  10. A most enjoyable, and interesting, post with wonderful pictures.
    Like you I have mixed feelings about such collections, but agree that they should be preserved and shown so that we can learn from them.
    I've always been a bit of a minimalist so have never really been much of a collector of anything. Flighty xx

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  11. What a wonderful place - so many interesting things tucked away in those drawers! The colours of those butterflies are amazing! xx

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  12. I could spend hours looking through such amazing collections. Just beautiful. I am not really a collector of things, hoarder describes me better. Yarn, fabric, old nail varnish bottles, glass jars, anything really but nothing is collected with the dedication of a true collector (like those Victorians, or my son with his rocks and gems). Cx

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  13. I've been to Stroud so many times - my mother has old friends nearby, my husband an aunt and a cousin and their families, but I didn't know such treasure existed there. And despite our feelings about the lives taken it is treasure ... much of what we know about the world today has it's foundations in this kind of collecting. You know where I'll be headed the next time I'm down that way!

    I really enjoyed this :)

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  14. Such beautiful collections, even though it's no longer acceptable to amass such collections these days. I think the only thing I seem to collect these days is yarn, far more than I'll ever use I suspect, but I used to collect stamps and first day covers as a child.

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  15. I have always enjoyed collections like this. I agree that it's not quite right but I'm still glad someone did it because we can learn so much from these items. I also really like exhibits which make use of those pull-out drawers for display, there's something so exciting about pulling out each new one as you move through.

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  16. This is beautifully written CJ. I feel so much like you about nature. I just can't get enough and can't look away. I agree about preserving something like this. There's no bringing back the life, so you might as well make the most of it and honor what that life once was.

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  17. "But here they are, these beautiful collections, and it is right that they are preserved. While it is no longer acceptable to plunder the natural world to satisfy our curiosity and provide a talking point, it is essential to look after the things that have been taken in the past." So well said, CJ.

    On that note, I would love to explore those drawers ...

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  18. I am loving all these collection posts. We are such collectors by nature really. Always wondering about what's come before us and what lays ahead.

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  19. The Victorians were certainly the greatest of collectors in a gruesome kind of way. If I had the space and didn't like clutter I could think of any number of things I would like to collect.

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  20. Fascinating post. I too am unsure what to feel about collections such as this - I love looking at similar ones in various Natural History Museums, yet don't like the idea of the creatures being killed and wouldn't want to do it myself. Very thought provoking. Enjoy the last bit of the Summer holidays. x

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  21. This is nothing to do with this post.I found your blog by accident and was reading the post on august 23rd and saw a photo of your allotment.To my surprise I thought I knew the town,.further reading and a picture of the High street told me I was right.I went to school there ,if you look to the river from your allotment you can see my home village below the church.It was a lovely surprise as I now live in France and don't get back too often .

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  22. Hey CJ,
    This is my kind of place. Yes, I have those same mixed feelings about looking at a board of butterflies pinned to card. But they are also part of our greater understanding of the world. The photographs of their day maybe?
    I collect pottery - tg green and torquay ware mainly. I love the little sayings written on them.
    lovely post. Hooray for the colour collaborative!

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  23. Found your blog whilst doing a bit of blog-hopping this morning, I have enjoyed reading some of your recent posts, and am following you now on bloglovin so hope to visit often X

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  24. Such a thought provoking post. Whilst we would certainly veto collecting on similar lines today, I can't help thinking that those collections held in our museums must have taught so much to so many over the years. I doubt my grandparents, or my parents when they were growing up, came across many bids' eggs or butterflies or seashells, living and working as they did in a heavily industrialised northern town. I may have dipped the odd toe into the collecting waters over the years (and remember being so impressed by a girl at my primary school who had amassed a very large collection of pottery pigs) but these days I'm trying my hardest to let go.

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  25. What an amazing collection, like you I have mixed feelings about these fascinating tho they are. Those coins are amazing it makes me wonder about the people that would have held them and used them :). Wonderful post.

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  26. Wow! Stunning collections - as you say it makes you almost envious of those that had the time and money to put together such collections. And what a fascinating house - and at least those collections can now teach us so much about the natural world. Calke Abbey (National Trust) has similar stunning collections - thanks for sharing, really enjoyed your visit
    Caz xx

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  27. I love the vintage and aged feeling of this post friend! And I am with you on collections...they can sneak up on you without you even knowing! How marvelous that people take advantage of these stunning collections! What an AMAZING museum...you live in a beautiful place CJ!!! Wishing you an outstanding weekend! Nicole xoxo

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  28. Playing catchup as I always seem to be doing these days. Sorry to hear about your son's accident, I do hope he mends quickly. I loved, loved your post about Flowers for Bees, with those wonderful photos. Glad you'll be growing more flowers for them in future, our garden has been 'alive' with them.. love it! :o) x

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