architect design™: When is it a collection?

Monday, December 17, 2012

When is it a collection?

This past weekend I attended an estate sale where I picked up yet ANOTHER cookie jar in the shape of an extant building. This is the Jackson Brewery in the French Quarter of New Orleans.

The workmanship is incredibly detailed and I just thought it was so fascinating and well done I had to have it even though I wasn't familiar with the building (let alone for $5). Ignore the kitchen wall behind which has had the wallpaper peeled from it but hasn't been sanded or painted!

So my question to you is this; now that I have 3 of these cookie jars when does it become a collection?!

21 comments:

Parnassus said...: Hello Stefan, Even one item constitutes a nascent collection if you are sufficiently pleased with its acquisition. When you reported on that first jar, you set in motion the events that resulted in #2 and #3. Which is o.k., because building cookie jars are very appropriate for an architect.
--Road to Parnassus; December 17, 2012 at 2:07 PM
ArchitectDesign™ said...: Parnassus - kitschy but fun I hope! I have the colored one in my kitchen and the 2 white ones on my bookshelves -so it's hardly the crazy cat lady cookie jar collection (yet!).; December 17, 2012 at 2:09 PM
Anonymous said...: It's a collection! Go with it.; December 17, 2012 at 2:29 PM
David said...: I always say two is a pair and three is a set, so the next one makes a collection.; December 17, 2012 at 2:35 PM
Woodside Park said...: To me, three = a collection! Very cool. I love your Renwick one. I worked with the Renwick Gallery when I was at the Smithsonian. I'll keep my eye out for a fourth :); December 17, 2012 at 6:07 PM
Mark D. Ruffner said...: Dear Stefan - I say three is a collection, and that come to you from one with many collections! And, you're in good company — Andy Warhol was a cookie jar collector . . .; December 17, 2012 at 6:19 PM
Karena said...: Stefan yes you do have a collection. I had no idea,,I thought these were difficult to find! Bravo!

Love & Hugs,
Karena
Art by Karena; December 17, 2012 at 6:27 PM
Kerry Steele- Design du Monde said...: They are very interesting and certainly need not be confined to kitchen use- the eponymous change jar perhaps?; December 17, 2012 at 6:59 PM
Anonymous said...: It's a collection. As far as the name, I had to look up Jackson Brewery. I always heard it called Jax Brewery, and they brewed Jax Beer. Our maid used to imbibe regularly. I preferred Dixie Beer myself.; December 17, 2012 at 7:04 PM
Anonymous said...: I'm wondering ... I have an actual architects model from Wannamaker's Department Store in Philly. It was made in 1920 and is of a half timbered house the store bought in England, had dismantled, shipped to the U.S. and stored in a warehouse until a buyer was found. The model is "to scale" ans is an exact reproduction of the actual building. The house was in fact purchased and built and I know where it is located. Is my model valuable in any way ??
Just wondering ....
Thanks !; December 18, 2012 at 1:05 AM
Windlost said...: I think this is very funny - an architectural cookie jar. Who would think?! It certainly is a novel collection. I think one is either a collector or not - there is a gene for it, I'm sure. I am not a collector. I think as a collector you seek out the thing. For me, I just know what I like and have a pretty firm sense of it, and once you have lived long enough, you begin seeing duplicate things. haha. I think collectors buy without the love of the thing sometimes, more for the purpose of the collection, rather than the lovely thing itself and the need to possess it. Of course, I realize your question is mostly or fully rhetorical, but I asked myself that same thing the other day when I counted 9 Christmas trees (porcelain, wood, metal or otherwise) in my living room. It was unintended! Thus not a collection in my mind, though maybe in other's minds. I think you decide it - whether you're a collector. Just like one decides if they are an artist or a writer...even though we all do those things and don't call ourselves it.

Ok, maybe that is more than you wanted to read. haha.

Best, Terri; December 18, 2012 at 1:20 AM
Hels said...: Collection status depends on your motivation and behaviour, not on the size of your treasure. So if you read catalogues, go to auctions, check the provenances of items and make plans for the objects, you are a collector. It doesn't matter if you have 4 objects or more objects than Gertrude Stein.

Collectors share a passion that I envy.; December 18, 2012 at 5:44 AM
Pigtown*Design said...: three is a collection.; December 18, 2012 at 9:55 AM
M. Denise C. said...: Love it, Stefan! Have you been to New Orleans? I think you would enjoy the Garden District.; December 18, 2012 at 10:57 AM
ArchitectDesign™ said...: Denise, I never have been although would LOVE to go!; December 18, 2012 at 10:58 AM
Reggie Darling said...: It is a collection when one does it oneself. It can quickly become a nightmare when one's family and friends start giving you ones to add to what you already have.; December 19, 2012 at 3:55 AM
Thomas said...: 5.. 5 is a collection- the slippery slope starts after 5- then the collection gets noticed anf friends start giving "gifts" to add to it- A firm hand and rutheless edit buttton is an absolute must-; December 19, 2012 at 12:47 PM
Lucindaville said...: Clearly, anything over "two" is a collection. And I didn't even know there was such a thing as building cookie jars. Another thing you have taught me.; December 20, 2012 at 12:26 PM
Deana Sidney said...: When you buy 2 it has begun as far as I'm concerned. I am terribly bad about such things. Might as well be a drug addict. It takes every bit of self control not to buy just one more.

Trouble is the stuff is just so great! What an amazing cookie jar! Who decided to do that much work on something like that? A Jackson perhaps, celebrating his success?

I look forward to visiting all your old posts and catching up... happy holiday!!!; December 20, 2012 at 4:27 PM
Style Court said...: Stefan, your finds are so much cooler than the cookie jars Jack secretly collected on 30 Rock :) Leave it to you to find a building like this. I can just see several on shelves in a kitchen of your own design.

Merry Christmas!
Courtney; December 21, 2012 at 6:26 PM
Divine Theatre said...: I have five cats. I collect them. I have two dogs. I don't think that qualifies as a collection. Three is a good start! LOL! I am going to keep my eye out for these cookie jars...then when I visit I can bring them and we can have cookies and visit!

Merry Christmas!

xo

Andie; December 23, 2012 at 10:46 AM