Linking Micro and Macro Trading of Antiquities: The Cylinder Seals Collection of John Pierpont Morgan

The study of private collections is an analysis of the metaphors that occur in discourses about the autobiographies of collectors and the signification of the objects for them.1 Things are a ‘materialisation’ and a medium to reveal thoughts, values and meanings. But in the case here presented, in what way does contemporary collecting re- flect themes specific to the modern society? Is it primarily an expression of capi- talism or the consumer society? Or is it best understood as a legacy of the Re- naissance to make order in the physical world, classify things and to appropriate the ‘other’? I asked myself these questions and I’m still looking for answers.