{"id":323,"date":"2017-06-11T17:52:00","date_gmt":"2017-06-11T17:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/2017\/06\/11\/the-extraordinary-in-the-ordinary-an-extraordinary-man-lloyd-cotsen\/"},"modified":"2017-06-11T17:52:00","modified_gmt":"2017-06-11T17:52:00","slug":"the-extraordinary-in-the-ordinary-an-extraordinary-man-lloyd-cotsen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/2017\/06\/the-extraordinary-in-the-ordinary-an-extraordinary-man-lloyd-cotsen.html","title":{"rendered":"The Extraordinary in the Ordinary – An Extraordinary Man – LLoyd Cotsen"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\nToo often we are blinded by the bling of our culture. For
\nsome reason . perhaps a trait of our competitive  human nature, we feel compelled to strive for stature by
\nobtaining objects, many of which are \u201conly for show\u201d.  This results in over-extended finances and households brimming
\nwith unappreciated \u201cstuff\u201d. 
\nUndoubtedly, there are many examples of outstanding articles : luxury
\ncars (that I would be fearful to drive), crown-worthy jewelry (that I would be
\nuneasy to wear) and medieval manuscripts ( that I could only touch wearing
\ngloves and would not understand the language at any rate).  These extraordinary objects have much merit,
\nof course, however, they are eclipsed, in my opinion, by those I can touch,
\nadmire and appreciate within my lifestyle. 
\nThe most frequently asked question I receive when asked to identify  a textile is:\u201dWhat is it worth?\u201d  My answer is always the same: \u201cIt is worth
\nwhat someone is willing to pay for it, nothing more\u201d  There is a difference between worth and value.  One might value a family keepsake, its
\n\u201cworth\u201d may be negligible.  <\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nThese thoughts are the result of my learning of the death of
\none of my favorite people: Lloyd Cotsen, (1920-2017).  I was not a family friend, nor had I ever met the man, but he had
\na passion, a passion for the everyday, the little things that told a story. He
\nwas a man I could relate with, at least in a small way..  Cotsen was a collector..of many, many
\nthings.  An outstanding business man, he
\nwas CEO of Neutrogena and marketed the brand to every dermatologist and into
\nmost households.  His business successes
\nenabled him to financially add to his collections.  However, his collections were of a broad interest and a result of
\na lifetime study of archeology.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nHe was also a great philanthropist and a benefactor to many
\nmuseums.  His donation to the Asian Art
\nMuseum of San Francisco consisted of Japanese bamboo baskets, to the Firestone
\nLibrary at Princeton his collection of more than 40,000 children\u2019s books.<\/div>\n
\nTo us in Santa Fe he is very highly regarded for his
\ncontribution of over 3,000 articles from his collections to the International
\nFolk Art Museum and the endowment funds which provide support to the
\nmuseum.  This very varied accumulation
\nof articles include many textiles ( an arctic parka of walrus gut, as an
\nexample).<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n\u201cI buy things because they strike an emotional bell, they
\nappeal to my curiosity, to the thrill of discovery of the extraordinary in the
\nordinary.\u201d<\/div>\n
\nLloyd Cotsen, 1998<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\nIt might be a worthy exercise to follow Cotsen\u2019s ability to
\nsee the \u201cextraordinary in the ordinary\u201d.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/a><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n                  The Extraordinary in the Ordinary,  Kahlenberg, Mary Ed., Abrams, Inc., 1998<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nThis is one of my most favorite of all the books in my reference collection.  The text is informative, the photographs beautifully printed and the scope of Cotsen’s collection is outstanding.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Too often we are blinded by the bling of our culture. For some reason . perhaps a trait of our competitive  human nature, we feel compelled to strive for stature by obtaining objects, many of which are \u201conly for show\u201d.  This results in over-extended finances and households brimming with unappreciated \u201cstuff\u201d.  Undoubtedly, there are many…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}