Collecting has numerous manifestations in contemporary
culture and a vital presence in the popular domain (outside the
artworld). Collections surround us everywhere: personal collections,
museums, store window displays, backyard gardens, World Wide Web
homepages, flea markets, world's fairs, historical and scientific
archives, and video stores. The range of personal collecting today
is enormous: butterfly collections, rock collections, stamps, coins,
matchbooks, commemorative objects of every kind, kitchenware, tools,
advertising, furniture, barbed wire, radios, typewriters, light
bulbs, bicycles, vintage automobiles. Through collecting in the
popular domain we are witnessing the widespread development of new
forms of vernacular connoisseurship.
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