Nationalism, Cosmopolitanism, and the Politics of Collecting in The Connoisseur: An Illustrated Magazine for Collectors , 1901-1914

Abstract

This essay examines attitudes towards the practice of collecting represented in the Connoisseur: An Illustrated Magazine for Collectors between 1901 and 1914 under its first editor, J. T. Herbert Baily. I argue that contributors to the magazine worked to reformulate collecting in response to the Victorian critique of the practice, which emphasized the collector's narcissistic tendency to disregard the historical alterity of objects. This revised mode of collecting, which attends carefully to contexts of origin, often led its practitioners to consider the national significance of artifacts. The magazine reflects the complicated political results of this revision of collecting practices as it intertwines aggressive nationalism with cosmopolitanism and merges cultural imperialism with a critique of globalization.