To Have and to Hold

“This curiously moving history . . . traces the development of collections since the Renaissance through lively portraits of famous collectors.” —The New Yorker

From amassing sacred relics to collecting celebrity memorabilia, the impulse to hoard has gripped humankind throughout the centuries. But what is it that drives people to possess objects that have no conceivable use? To Have and To Hold is a captivating tour of collectors and their treasures from medieval times to the present, from a cabinet containing unicorn horns and a Tsar's collection of teeth to the macabre art of embalmer Dr. Frederick Ruysch, the fabled castle of William Randolph Hearst, and the truly preoccupied men who stockpile food wrappers and plastic cups. An engrossing story of the collector as bridegroom, deliriously, obsessively happy, wed to his possessions, till death do us part.

“Wry history . . . Blom’s formidable research is an example of the collector’s art in itself.” —The New York Times Book Review

“An admirable attempt to chart the history of an obsession.” —Publishers Weekly

“An impressive, wide-ranging book.” —Christopher Tayler, Sunday Telegraph

“Blom's literary cabinet is full of pungent biographies.” —Times Literary Supplement

“Provocative, stimulating and entertaining . . . Huge questions are thrown up . . . on every page of the book, but it is also full of jokes, unusual and very welcome in a work of such impressive scholarship and elegance of style . . . a sparkling, discursive, and eclectic book.” —Independent on Sunday

“Throughout these well-documented stories, Blom probes the heart and soul of collecting's appeal . . . .An intellectual journey worth taking.” —Booklist