If we didn't collect anything, how would we remember who we were?

Just finished reading The Hare with Amber Eyes, by Edmund de Waal.

Enjoyed it thoroughly. I agree with the reviews on the back cover, such as "To be handed a story as durable and exquisitely crafted as this is a rare pleasure"; "Mr. de Waal's nostalgia is tart, tactile, marvelously nuanced."

I don't quite agree with the advice from the reviewer in The Economist: "Buy two copies of this book; keep one and give the other to your closest bookish friend." It's fine advice if you have lots of money to spend, but noting the great pleasure I received from this book is the closest I can come to "giving" it to friends.

The book did inspire me to make a trip to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, in search of netsuke, the tiny Japanese wood and ivory carvings that inspired de Waal to write this memoir. I also wanted to look at ceramics (de Waal is Professor of Ceramics at the University of Westminster, and writes with feeling and intelligence about the mystery of why we find some objects beautiful).

But first, breakfast at Beck's Cajun Cafe, located in Reading Terminal Market.

I chose red beans and rice with andouille sausage, a fried egg on top, and two big chunks of cornbread - the Cajun breakfast bowl. Excellent fuel for a day of walking around museums.

Then I hopped on a bus for the museum, and went in search of netsuke. I did not find any. (Later, though, I did find an image of a netsuke rabbit on the web.)

(This image is misleading, since netsuke are tiny, no more than three inches high. All that detail in a tiny, tiny space.)

And I saw lots of other interesting things. Suspicious saints.

Chinese snuff boxes.

The face of Bhairava.

A 17th-century monkey with an earring.

And a 17th-century dog with two earrings.

And in the sculpture garden, a giant Claes Oldenburg plug. (Items related to electricity are very popular in Philadelphia public art.)

Then I took a shuttle to the Perelman Building across the street, which houses a textile and fashion museum, among other exhibits.

The current exhibit is Great Coats - the museum owns lots and lots of couture, and they periodically exhibit various pieces. How about this stunner?

You can read about it here:

The museum gift shop featured some fascinating and horribly expensive pieces of apparel, including these cool boots:

All in all, a good time wandering around looking at collections of stuff.

I'll end with a selection from one of the amazon reviewers of The Hare with Amber Eyes:


What are objects to us? Do they change when we hold them, display them, give them value? Do they "retain the pulse of their makeup?" If we didn't collect anything, how would we remember who we were?


Collecting photos and memories is a way of figuring out who we are, I think.