Collecting Nature

A gorgeous leatherbound compendium of flora, shells, rare insects and more from the golden age of curiosities

Featuring amazing reproductions of floral specimens, minerals, seashells and more from rarely seen collections, and beautiful engravings of 18th- and 19th-century collections, this stupendously produced volume takes as its starting point the famous Timm Collection at Engelsberg Ironworks in Sweden, created by Gabriel Casper Timm and his son Paul August in the 19th century. Throughout their lives, father and son devoted much of their leisure time to collecting plants, insects, minerals and other natural treasures across Scandanavia, which they preserved in beautiful collector's cabinets. Maintaining close contact with collectors and scientists, they also assembled a library of volumes on natural science along with books on spirituality and faith.

Drawing on a range of historical materials, Collecting Nature places the Timm Collection in a larger dialogue with other collectors, thinkers and scientists of the 18th and 19th centuries, showing how the world of ideas in collecting has developed and continues to influence us today.