The E-Sylum:  Volume 5, Number 44, November 3, 2002, Article 13

RANDOM QUOTES OF THE WEEK

  Bill Murray submitted a couple of unrelated quotes touching
  on numismatics and bibliomania.  The second has been seen
  before in The E-Sylum, but it's worth running again:

  "Monetism -- the worship of money, so also Monetist -- one
  who practices monetism."  English Oxford Dictionary"

  "Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend.  Inside of a
  dog it's too dark to read."  Groucho Marx

  Your editor stumbled the following quote yesterday.  From
  the rear cover of the November 8, 1932 B. Max Mehl
  catalog of the R. Taylor sale (and undoubtedly published
  elsewhere as well by George Kolbe) comes this translated
  quote from the will of Edmond de Goncourt:

  "My wish is that my Drawing, my Prints, my Curiosities,
  my Books -- in a word, these things of art which have
  been the joy of my life -- shall not be consigned to the
  cold tomb of a museum, and subjected to the stupid glance
  of the passer-by; but I require that they shall all be
  dispersed under the hammer of the Auctioneer, so that
  the pleasure which the acquiring of each one of them has
  given me shall be given again, in each case, to some
  inheritor of my own tastes."

  de Goncourt's thoughts are a bit tangential to the above
  discussion of museums, but it could kick off an interesting
  new thread.  Personally, I'm on both sides of the fence on
  the issue - I feel that a few of my possessions would serve
  their highest purpose as part of a museum collection, yet
  also feel strongly that the bulk of my collections should be
  sold someday, ensuring that each, as per de Goncourt's
  wishes, will end up in the hands of the individual (or
  institution) which prizes it the most.

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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