"A good collector possesses a rare degree of intelligence. The brain of an ordinary individual is developed and enriched by collecting. Every man ought to set it before himself as an aim to know at least some one thing in the world better than any other man. This ambition is not unattainable because there are so many objects on which one may set his mind at work. The sum total of the world's learning is vastly increased and becomes in time an imposing and almost unbelievable mass of knowledge through the division of labor by which an individual gives attention to something of which other individuals know nothing." He also writes: "It is true that collectors are often selfish. In fact, some of them are monumentally selfish, but we notice that selfishness only when the importance of the work that such men are doing at last dawns on us." Wallace Nutting, "Furniture Treasury, Volume III" 1949.

Thanks to Tony Seo and Olde River Hard Goods