The first thing I can think of that I collected is rocks. I liked the little bits of mica which sparkled and I thought might be really valuable! That was when I was about 8 and I think my entire collection was from the path outside at the back of our house.

Another collection I had was of home-made paper dolls that I made and hid away from Judy, whose entire purpose in life seemed to be to make me cry! She must have found them hidden under the towels in the bathroom as I could never find them. I seem to remember that I never mentioned their disappearance in order to not give her a reason to be pleased!

My biggest collection was of pictures of movie stars. I used to buy movie magazines in the mid 1950s and, in the back were loads of different ads – there was an ad for a monkey small enough to fit into a teacup; another ad for something that would help you copy drawings! (I think it was a pantograph); and loads of adverts for movie star photos. I seem to remember buying several lots of them but, once I had them, I had no idea what to do with them! They all were left behind when we moved to the UK.

My collecting seemed to stop during my older teens, and my 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s, except for books which I tended to buy and keep until we ran out of shelf space. Then, in my mid 60s, when I started buying and selling antiques and collectables, I started collecting buttons. I found that most auctioneers had no ‘Lots’ containing buttons and that they used to chuck them away! But, I bought them when I found them, then sorted them, sold a few interesting ones and kept the rest. The best I have are in a bag somewhere in my bedroom, the mother of pearl ones are in a big tin and the rest (glass, coloured glass, black glass, art deco, one-holed, brass, other metal etc etc) are in tins under the spare room bed! I still get them out and look at them from time to time. (I think my fascination with buttons comes from the fact that neither my mother nor my grandmother had button boxes for me to sort as a child!)

When I discovered old wooden jigsaws, I also found (and bought) Victorian and Edwardian sets of picture blocks. I have about ten sets which I really like!

But, nowadays, I tend not to collect stuff and think I really should start getting rid of a lot of things my heirs will not want, including the six crates of china, the brass ladles that, I think, come from Chilham Castle, the lovely tins, the early 20th century card games etc etc.

Below you will see 4 photos of one of my picture block puzzles. The ‘guide pictures’ which are usually with this kind of puzzle are missing but the picture on the top of the box is one of the guides, as seen in the first photo. Sorry some of the photos have shadows!

The pictures on the puzzles, like the one above were, I believe, printed in Germany in the late 19th century. I haven’t seen any books on block puzzles and, like old jigsaw puzzles, were not often put in catalogues so there is no way of knowing who made them unless they were branded, as few are.