Sharing Collections

We “went to” another Intuit home tour on Zoom the other night and when Intuit President and CEO Debra Kerr thanked collector Jan Petry for sharing her collection she mentioned that she knew Jan was anxious to do so. Jan replied that the thing about collectors is that they really like to share their collections. I would add that collectors also really like to look at the collections of others so I was happy recently to get a text from my Birmingham niece with a photo of her seasonal mantel featuring the ceramic egg collection that she and her daughter have painted over the years and I zoomed in to see the details.

Of course I immediately reciprocated with some photos of my wooden egg collection.

I bought most of them on my lunch break walk from a small store on Green Street in Northampton many years ago. It was my impression then that the store owner purchased them in Europe. I haven’t added to the collection recently although I did purchase the larger light green one from World Market a few years ago.

This year a small antique store recently opened on Broadway and I always look in the window as I pass it on the way to the gym. One day an eclectic selection of eggs including one painted wooden one with geometric shapes appeared so I bought it. The next time I walked by there was another painted wooden one – red with flowers similar to but more elaborate than many of mine – so of course I thought I needed that one too. When I went to buy that one the store owner asked me if I had seen the ones that were inside a dish with a cover. Hidden Easter eggs, how appropriate! After examining them I decided to buy one that was both etched and painted rather than the one I had come in to buy. Obviously, I had to return a few days later to buy that one.