Presentation of and attempt to catalogue a private collection for public access

Collecting as a way of life

Collecting is the irresistible desire for the new. I have been collecting as long as I can remember. It started in my early childhood in the late sixties and early seventies by compiling all sorts of little pictures sold with chewing gum, chocolates, etc. At the time, lapel pins made for promotion by companies, sports clubs, various associations, etc. were immensely popular in Yugoslavia. One could say there was a real mania for collecting lapel pins. And I, of course, was not spared. A defining moment on my collecting journey and a big step into true collecting was visiting the WIPA International Philatelic Exhibition in Vienna in 1981. 

The beginnings of my two traditional and two thematic philatelic collections date back to my secondary school days, while the rest of my collections were conceptualised gradually from 1983 onwards. It started with postcards and photographs, and as my horizon broadened, I began to collect and supplement material from other fields of interest. The entire collection consists of a wide variety of local history content based on a common concept—they are all related to Maribor and its wider surroundings. The only departure from this approach represent: the collection of vedutas published in 1999, 2006, and 2015 in three albums, covering the whole of Slovene Styria, the nationwide collection of the Sokol and Orel gymnastics associations, and the collection of Franz Erben’s photographic postcards, as Erben’s production covered the whole of Lower Styria.

In the eighties and nineties, the collection grew mainly by attending collectors’ meetings and fairs, however, during the first decade of the present century there was a slow transition from attending these events to searching for specimens on the web, which meant new and unprecedented possibilities for the acquisition of material. Since then, a single term or name can hypothetically be used to find an artefact for sale online by someone from the most remote village in the world. Occasional visits to antique shops, auction houses, and fairs though still remain a special ritual and a reminder of “old times”.

The collection consists of twelve basic subject areas or stocks, each of which is structured according to the collection’s requirements. These areas will be further subdivided in future inventories. The first four stocks are arranged chronologically, the remainder according to my collecting preferences. The basic segmentation of the collection (e.g. the stocks) encompasses:

I Maps and plans

The collection contains maps of major areas, including Styria from the 16th to the mid-20th centuries, and particularly the crown land of the Duchy of Styria from 1849 to 1918, as well as maps of the city of Maribor and its surroundings from the late 19th to the mid-20th centuries. The collection includes 190 maps and town plans, which have been documented and inventoried.

II Vedutas 

The collection comprises vistas of Maribor and its surroundings, as well as other towns and cities, castles, manors, and monasteries in Slovene Styria previously issued in my publications:

• Vischer’s Topography of the Duchy of Styria, last quarter of the 17th century;
• Old Kaiser’s Suite, 1825–1833;
• Lampl’s Suite, 1840–1845 (Maribor with surroundings);
• Vedutas from Slovene Styria by Carl Reichert, 1860–1870.

The collection contains around 400 prints, watercolours, and drawings.

III Photographs 

The collection includes examples of early portrait photography (daguerreotype, ferrotype) from around 1850–1860, numerous portraits made by Maribor photographers, photographs of Maribor and its surroundings from 1865 to 1990 by local and foreign photographers, as well as negatives and slides from 1900 to 1990, among other items. In the eighties, a small collection of erotic photographs from the end of the 19th century and the first quarter of the 20th century was also created. Special emphasis is given to the photographers Heinrich Krapke, Ferdinand Weitzinger, and Franz Erben.

The collection is roughly estimated at several thousand items. There are also some photo albums, wherein a scrapbook (1878–1901) of photographer Ferdinand Weitzinger deserves special attention.

IV Postcards 

The collection includes postcards of Maribor and its surroundings from 1892 to 1945, and a special collection of postcards ranging from the end of World War II to the present day. The collection has been systematically built up since 1983. It contains around 8000 postcards. The postcards of photographers Heinrich Krapek and Franz Erben, which, currently located in the “Photographs” stock, will be moved to this collection. The collection also incorporates postcards of Maribor and the surrounding area from the end of World War II to the present day. The estimated number of postcards in the collection is around 2000.

V Posters and small size prints

The collection holds posters from the end of the 19th century and small size prints from the second half of the 18th century onwards. The material is related to Maribor and its surroundings. The collection comprises around 3000 prints.

VI Books and other publications

The collection encompassing the topic of Maribor and its surroundings includes a number of rare books and publications issued after 1823. In addition to non-fiction literature on the history of the city, which is being continuously updated with new items, the stock also contains numerous works of fiction set in Maribor. The collection comprises around 250 items.

VII Collection of typescripts and manuscripts of Jože Curk

This stock contains the typewritten and manuscriptal legacy of the scientific research work of art historian Jože Curk. The volume of this bequest is 1.3 running metres and the material is inventoried according to international archival standards. Three typescripts by other authors have been provisionally included in this collection.

VIII Philately

The central part of the stock is the postal history collection of Maribor and its surroundings from the first half of the 19th century to the end of the 20th century. However, since my collecting has its roots in traditional and thematic philately, I have added a collection of postage stamps from Yugoslavia (1944–1991), Liechtenstein (1912–1999) and Europe CEPT (1956–1991), which I collected intensively in the eighties, but no longer after then.

IX Personalities

The collection contains prints, photographs, postcards, manuscripts, books, and small size prints of significant personalities who were in any way connected with Maribor (Archduke Johann, Bishop Anton M. Slomšek, Vice-Admiral Wilhelm von Tegetthoff, and the pioneer of aerospace technology Herman Potočnik Noordung, among others). The “Personalities” collection was created spontaneously and in parallel with the main collections. It comprises around 400 items.

X Maribor Slovene National Theatre

The collection includes photographs, postcards, small size prints, and posters of the Maribor theatre during the interwar, and above all, postwar periods. The collection also includes pictorial material from Maribor’s German and Slovenian theatres during the monarchy. The collection comprises around 1500 photographs, letters, play bills, small size prints, and posters.

XI Sokol and Orel gymnastics associations

The collection contains postcards, photographs, posters, and small size prints of the Slovenian gymnastics clubs Sokol (falcon) and Orel (eagle) from 1898 to the beginning of World War II. Most of them date from the period prior to the collapse of the monarchy. The collection includes 220 postcards, posters, and small size prints.

XII Glassware, porcelain, ceramics, street signs/plates, and signsbords for public use

Various collections of glassware, porcelain, ceramics, street signs/plates and signboards for public use were created spontaneously through occasional purchases or donations. Unlike the collections presented so far, which are paper-based, the items in these collections are, as the title suggests, made of glass, porcelain, ceramics, and sheet metal. The collection comprises about 150 specimens.

The book The Primož Premzl Collection was published alongside the online presentation. The purpose of both is to publicly present a collection, which has been forty years in the making and comprises over 20,000 items. I would like my collection to never be fragmented and, at an appropriate time, to become part of the publicly accessible collection of one of the institutions dedicated to the preservation of movable heritage. At my age, it is reasonable to ask when is the right time to part with a collection to which I have devoted most of my life, and most of my spare time and savings. Of course, I wish I could go on making additions to it myself for a long time, but one never knows how much earthly time one has left. That is why now seemed the right moment to gradually catalogue the collection and—by publishing it online—make it accessible to the public. This would certainly give the collection greater visibility and more opportunities to be included in the system of public collections, such as those held by libraries, archives, and museums, and financially supported by the state and local authorities according to the law. The purpose of my collection would be thus achieved.