Magpies, Squirrels and Thieves

During the nineteenth century, British collectors were among the most active, passionate and eccentric in the world. In Magpies, Squirrels and Thieves, Jacqueline Yallop tells the stories of some of the period's most intriguing collectors, drawing on journals, eye-witness accounts and news reports, to follow their hazardous journeys across the globe in the hunt for rare and beautiful objects.

From passionate connoisseur and curator John Charles Robinson to the aristocratic scholar Charlotte Schreiber, who ransacked Europe for treasure; from London's fashionable Pre-Raphaelite circle to the pioneering Stephen Wootton Bushell in Beijing, Jacqueline Yallop plunges into the world of cut-throat markets, dodgy dealing, looting and forgery, and confronts the competitive spirit that drove Victorian collectors.

Along the way, Magpies Squirrels and Thieves traces the beginnings of the modern roles of dealer, collector and curator, as well as the new network of museums which sustained them. It reveals how collecting emerged from the cabinets of royalty to take over the homes of the trend-setting middle classes, and it shows how the involvement of women - and the impact of empire - challenged notions of what was desirable and possible. From china vases and hand-painted fans, to paintings, playing cards and ancient relics, the Victorian obsession with 'things' flourished during this era of great change, sparking an infatuation that remains with us today.