author
Charles Rowed
A genial early-20th-century guide to the pleasures of collecting, written by someone who clearly knew the thrill of the hunt. His best-known book mixes practical advice, personal anecdotes, and a real affection for old objects and the stories they carry.
1 Audiobook
Collecting as a Pastime
by Charles Rowed
About the author
Charles Rowed is known for Collecting as a Pastime, published by Cassell in 1920. The book was written to "inspire, inform and amuse" amateur collectors, and it shows: the tone is friendly, curious, and full of firsthand enthusiasm for antiques and everyday historical objects.
In Collecting as a Pastime, he writes about subjects including grandfather clocks, furniture, pewter, brass, copper, pottery, china, horse amulets, Sheffield plate, and old silver. The book was illustrated with 68 half-tone images, suggesting that Rowed cared not just about describing objects, but about helping readers really see them.
Reliable biographical information about his life is scarce in the sources available here, so it is safest to remember him chiefly through this surviving work. What comes through clearly is a writer with a collector's eye, a sense of humor, and a gift for making a specialized hobby feel welcoming.