Classification of collectibles
Shi Gensheng divided the private folk libraries in China into four categories: natural history, art history, humanities history and popular science history. Natural history includes insect specimens, marine life and specimens, rain flower stones, strange stones and wing paintings, that is, all kinds of objects in nature are the main ones; Art history includes cigarette labels, smoking utensils, sparks, micro-sculptures, tea sets, porcelain sculptures, arts and crafts, calligraphy and painting, etc. Humanities and history mainly include books, newspapers, materials, folk customs and other items; The history of popular science includes computing tools, clocks, keys, wine containers and so on. This classification has some merits because of its inclusiveness, but it is limited to private collections rather than collections.
How to scientifically classify collections is an urgent task, because it is very important for the development of collection science. This book classifies collections as follows:
(1) Cultural relics, including historical relics, (ancient human and biological) fossils, physical objects of ancient buildings, calligraphy and painting, rubbings, sculptures, inscriptions, costumes, utensils, folk works of art, stationery, entertainment supplies, theatrical props, arts and crafts, revolutionary cultural relics and foreign cultural relics.
Although modern objects are not cultural relics, they can all be classified into the above categories except those listed separately below. The items listed above all contain many contents, such as gold and silver utensils, tin-lead utensils, lacquerware, funerary wares, utensils, furniture, fabrics, carpets, clocks, hookahs, fans and so on. Crafts include feeders, enamels, purple sand, wood carvings, horns, rattan and bamboo utensils, silk reeling and others.
(2) Jewelry, famous stones and ornamental stones, including jadeite diamonds, various inkstones and Yin Shi, as well as strange stones and ornamental stones, are mainly natural without hand carving.
(3) Coins, including ancient coins of past dynasties and currencies of modern countries in the world.
(4) Stamps, including stamps from all over the world and other collectibles related to stamp collecting.
(five) literature, including books, newspapers, archives, photos, film instructions, posters and other written materials.
(six) tickets, including tax stamps, lottery tickets, tickets, merchandise tickets, transportation tickets, monthly tickets, etc.
(7) Trademarks, including sparks, cigarette labels, wine labels, candy paper, etc.
Badges, including commemorative badges, medals, epaulettes and other badges.
(9) Specimens, including animal specimens, plant specimens and mineral specimens.
(ten) other categories, where the above nine categories are not included in this category.
This classification is mainly based on the actual collections in China and the world. The above collections not only have many fans, but also have been established and can be recognized by more collectors. Of course, this classification is not static, it will be constantly adjusted with the development and changes of the collection to reflect the status of contemporary collections, which has certain stability and plays a guiding and guiding role in folk collections.