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Wednesday 25 March 2009

Dispersal of Sampler Collections

You have probably gathered from my article in the Spring 2009 Sampler and Needlework Quarterly the strength of my feeling about keeping collections intact and maintaining their coherence wherever possible. Today, I learnt that a significant family sampler collection, recently dispersed through auction houses, has been separated from important family documents and letters which have been sold singly to stamp collectors in the belief that people who collect samplers are not interested in stamps.....
Not a red letter day for me today.

If you are in a position to bequeath a sampler collection - or a collection of other items for that matter - please leave a note in your will that you wish certain documents relevant to provenance to be kept with the items and at any future dispersal the documents must accompany the items as one selling lot. I beg you.

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