LiveAuctionTalk com Highlights Christmas Collection of Jock Elliott in its Weekly Free Article
Released on = March 19, 2007, 9:25 am
Press Release Author = Rosemary McKittrick
Industry = Internet & Online
Press Release Summary = Art, antique and collectibles expert Rosemary McKittrick is one of the trusted sources in the field. Visit her site and sign up for a free weekly subscription.
Press Release Body = March 19, 2007--With a sigh of relief the Christmas season came to a close for most of us. A sweet ending for some. A sad ending for others.
For Christmas collector Jock Elliott, the season lingered all year round. Elliott spent 50 years collecting Christmas ephemera, mostly books.
From throw a ways to the truly rare, Elliott collected books on Christmas traditions, customs and every imaginable story, poem, and carol related to the Yuletide. He even owned Charles Dickens\'s reading copy of "A Christmas Carol."
You might call him a Christmas connoisseur. A custodian of holiday lore.
Born in Manhattan in 1921, Elliott began his career in 1945 as a copywriter at BBDO advertising agency. After 15 years, he went to work for Ogilvy & Mather where he ultimately rose to chairman.
His vocation may have been advertising, but his avocation was clearly book collecting. Friends often asked him how many Christmas books he owned.
Elliott never really counted, but he had more than 3,000 first editions. Nor was the collection private.
He shared portions of the motherload through exhibitions at the Widener Library, the Pierpoint Morgan Library, the Century Association, Harvard and the Grolier Club.
"I love Christmas," he said. "I am sure it all goes back to my childhood Christmases, which were made magical by both my parents, but particularly by my mother."
Jock Elliott died at age 84 in 2005. The Christmas collector was called one of the most significant advertising account managers of the 20th century.
Over the years, he apologized for his "silly" habit of collecting books with the word Christmas in the title. Ultimately, it may very well be these "silly" books for which he is most fondly remembered. On Dec. 12, Sotheby's, New York, featured The Christmas Collection of Jock Elliott on the block.
Read the entire article at www.LiveAuctionTalk.com.
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