Read Magpies, Squirrels and Thieves for Free Online Page A

influential dealers, noting a preference for Monsieur Delange on the Quai Voltaire, opposite the Louvre and the Tuileries Gardens; he regularly bought the more reasonably priced wares of Mister Evans, who owned the next-door shop; and he was a frequent visitor to the small but packed showroom of Monsieur Couvreur, on the rue Notre Dame des Victoires, in the crisscross of streets around the fashionable Opéra.
    By 1846, hopeful visits to the most promising dealers had already become an integral part of Robinson’s life. A young man of twenty-two, he was collecting in earnest, haggling over the spoils of war and revolution, travelling to Orléans and Tours as well as keeping an eye on bargains to be had in Paris. For the next sixty years, his letters, diaries and published articles, and even his account books and official museum minutes, would show a man completely captivated by the idea of collecting. In Paris, the opportunity to visit several thriving and inspiring collections rooted in private connoisseurship provided a touchstone for what he might go on to achieve, proving what could be done with dedication and commitment. Perhaps most important of these was the collection of Alexandre Du Sommerard in the atmospheric medieval Hôtel de Cluny. Open to the public on Sundays from 1832, the elaborate rooms drewon the influence of the
Wunderkammer
, evoking the cluttered, treasure-trove effect of the impassioned collector and drawing crowds as large as those at the Louvre.
    By the time of Robinson’s visits, the state had taken over the collection, arranging the pieces more systematically and allowing more frequent public access from 1844. The Musée de Cluny was already making news among English politicians and commentators as a resource for educating taste and encouraging the skills of artisans and manufacturers, being held up as a model for British projects like the Schools of Design. Robinson had probably heard of the collection in this light. But it was also a scholarly celebration of collecting the medieval and Renaissance decorative arts. Du Sommerard published a highly illustrated, five-volume catalogue (1838–46) with an emphasis on the pieces as ‘strange and rare history’ instead of as evidence of design standards, and it was this sense of the more idealistic possibilities of collecting that Robinson seems to have found most inspiring. 6 Du Sommerard had a dull day job in the French Audit Office, but his heart was in collecting and for an impressionable young visitor like Robinson this enthusiasm was in itself exhilarating.
    Robinson was already finding his way into the circle of collectors. A recommendation from a fellow connoisseur would have granted him access, via three flights of steep stairs, to the tiny apartment of Charles Sauvageot, in rue du Faubourg-Poissonière in an outlying district of northern Paris. Sauvageot lived completely surrounded by his things. ‘The objects were so crowded that I tucked in my sleeves from fear,’ wrote another English visitor, clearly afraid of accidental breakage. ‘It is evident that he buys articles from real love of the beautiful.’ 7 Sauvageot, like Du Sommerard, had a ‘normal’ career, working at the Customs office, and his rooms were small and cramped. He had little money, but he was an indefatigable scavenger, alert to the possibilities foracquiring unusual and valuable works in the long aftermath of the Revolution. His collection showed that with patience and spirit it was possible to achieve a great deal. Robinson took such models to heart. He became acutely aware of the variety and beauty of the objects on offer. He developed a taste for Limoges enamels and an enduring fascination with textiles. He bought sixteenth- and seventeenth-century silks, with their colours still bold, an ornamental carpet and a magnificent altar cover. He became voracious in his collecting, developing a sense of urgency and