The roots of the human habit of collecting things are
most likely lost in the mists of time, but it could have gone something like
this: One of our earliest caveman
ancestors, let’s call him “Ook,” probably took a liking to something, say shiny
black rocks. He probably liked the way
they looked in the firelight in his cave or something.
At any rate, he decided to start saving them and
arranging them in and around his cave.
It probably wasn’t too long before his sister, “Uklah”, noticed and
thought the rocks were kind of pretty.
She didn’t want to collect rocks, but she always liked the big, pink
seeds that she found on the jungle floor.
Soon, she has a nice collection of her own going.
If we skip forward a few thousand years, when people are
settled into towns and villages, the opportunities for collecting have
expanded. With many more people living
together in community and established households, the need for goods developed,
along with the skilled tradespeople to create and sell them. In addition to practical items, like dishes
or pans, there were also more skilled artisans who could make things like figurines,
which would become the next generation of collectibles.
As the idea of upper classes and royalty and nobility
developed in society, collecting kind of naturally became settled with those
classes. They were the ones with the time, money, and prestige to acquire,
display, and maintain large collections of items. The Dowager Duchess of Austrohowa naturally
had a large collection of miniature mother-of-pearl inlaid porcelain portraits
of the Kings and Queens of Rumania. She
was the Dowager Duchess! Many items from
this period remain with us as museum pieces or very high end antiques.
If we move up into more modern times, we can see that the
development of things like set work hours and wages, along with economic boom
times, laid the groundwork for a culture of collectors. Dad had extra time after work, so he needed a
hobby. The next thing you know he’s
collecting cork ducks. And soon, he’s
teaching Junior about them. And, some
day, the collection gets passed on to someone.
So, we come to more recent times, where things are
actually manufactured with the intent that they will be collected. Yet, alongside this phenomenon, there are
still all kinds of people starting all kinds of collections of interesting
items, just because they want to.
Lots of kids’ toy lines are built around the idea of “collecting
the whole set.” This can actually help
children learn organization and memory skills that can help them in other areas
of life. Adults still find that having a
hobby or collection is a nice way to relieve stress and relax after work or on
the weekends.
YesterNook is proud to be a part of collection history that
goes all the way back to Ook and Uklah.
From salt and pepper shakers to Pez dispensers, you’ll never quite know
what you can find here! We’ll be glad to
try and help you fill holes in your existing collection or start a new one!
