WHY COLLECT?
When Scotch Whisky International acquired Valentino Zagatti’s world-famous collection of whisky bottles in 2015 (see: Magazine issue 175), the new owner purpose built a museum to display the Italian collector’s life’s work, roughly at the same time as commissioning Hans and Becky Offringa to create a new set of books about the collection. The undertaking took the couple two-and-a-half years to complete and, in addition to cataloguing each bottle, the research inevitably involved getting under the skin of both the core themes of and motivations behind collecting whisky.
According to established psychologists, neurologists and other expert authors on the subject, there appears to be a number of different motivations for collecting. People may collect items for ‘bragging rights’ on a subject they assume to know all about; thus, a particular collection may enhance self-esteem. For others, the thrill to explore and find an object they desire may be the driving force. Then some may be interested in the history of a particular domain and want to gain intellectual satisfaction
