A collector is someone who assembles around himself objects that he enjoys. They can be timeless or trendy, inexpensive or extravagant, flat or multi-dimensional. The key here is that the focus is on the person collecting, not what is being collected. Art is a very personal experience, and the collector is in the business of making choices.

From the introduction of the printing press, graphic arts were highly collectable. Created to provide a means of communication and education for the widest possible audience (most of whom couldn’t read) they conveyed a message that had wide appeal and needed no words to be understood. The seventeenth century saw prints sought after and collected for their subject matter and the reputation of the artist. As graphic processes became more technically advanced, a group of master printers emerged with images so skillfully executed and artistic that they are still among the most sought after prints of all time.

In the eighteenth and early part of the nineteenth century there were two kinds of collectors: the wealthy sponsors who would collect a complete study and keep it as part of their library, and the emerging middle classes who would buy individual images for education or amusement. Prints had to tell a story visually and so details were important. Many prints were discarded shortly after viewing, much like our newspapers today; others were tucked away and saved as the beginning of a collection.

After the social and industrial revolutions of the mid-nineteenth century, the sheer volume of images available coupled with the Victorian impulse to cover every inch of space with decoration produced the concept of purely decorative images that could be hung on the wall. Print rooms, where graphics were basically used as wall paper and hung floor to ceiling, were in vogue and even the humblest cottages had decorative graphics framed on the walls. This shift would forever change the nature of collecting.

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