The Collectors: Being Cases Mostly Under The Ninth And Tenth Commandments
By:Frank Jewett Mather Published By:Double9 Books
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The Collectors: Being Cases Mostly Under The Ninth And Tenth Commandments
About the Book
The collectors: being cases mostly under the ninth and tenth commandments assembles a sequence of stories and reflections on the world of art collecting, using fiction and satire to probe its moral and psychological dimensions. The book opens with a foreword that frames the tales as cautionary episodes rooted in the sins of covetousness and falsehood, suggesting that the art world often operates on desire, deception, and social pretense. Through a ballade and a series of character sketches, the author introduces eccentric collectors, cunning forgers, and glamorous patrons whose taste for beauty shades into a taste for possession and manipulation. Central figures include a skilled but unscrupulous picture forger, a polished “Great Lady” who outmanoeuvres an earnest expert, and a variety of enthusiasts whose obsession with owning art exposes their vanity and moral frailty. Across the narratives, the collection underscores the thin line between genuine connoisseurship and greed, between admiration and exploitation, inviting readers to question who truly serves the work of art and who is merely serving their own ego. In its blend of anecdote, irony, and moral reflection, the book offers a quietly critical portrait of the cultural rituals and ethical tensions that surround collecting.
Frank Jewett Mather Jr. was an American art critic and professor born on 6 July 1868 in Deep River, Connecticut, and died on 11 November 1953. He spent much of his career teaching and writing about art, helping to shape early‑20th‑century American views of European and modern painting through his criticism and scholarly work. Mather combined academic training with a keen eye for visual culture, often emphasizing both technical skill and expressive meaning in the works he discussed. His interest in psychology and morality of art collecting also appears in the collectors: being cases mostly under the ninth and tenth commandments, where he uses fictional episodes to explore vanity, greed, and the blurred lines between appreciation and possession. Beyond his writing, he contributed to art education, mentoring students and helping to establish art history as a serious discipline in American universities. Through his balanced, literate criticism and his skeptical yet engaged perspective on the art world, Mather left a quietly influential mark on how Americans read, interpret, and value works of art.
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