1000 Objects – A Story of the Passion of Collecting
Collectors are often ridiculed as oddballs. When it comes to art, whether everyday art, design, or museum pieces, it is collectors who help preserve the beautiful and rare.
Collectors are often ridiculed as oddballs. But when it comes to art, whether everyday art, design, or museum-quality items, it is collectors who help preserve beautiful and rare objects. Peter Grünbaum's collection is an extraordinary example of this.
Collecting as a hobby is deeply rooted in human nature. In surveys, three out of four Germans say they collect themselves. The objects of desire are as diverse as their collectors: from beer mats and porcelain figurines to historical artifacts and paintings by the "Old Masters," there is hardly anything that is not collected, although it is usually the wallet that determines whether the objects have any value in themselves.
Peter Grünbaum's career as a collector also began early in life with the widely available classics: stamps and coins were among the first objects that awakened his passion for collecting. However, less conventional objects quickly followed, such as toy robots, space toys, and Mickey Mouse comics, which Grünbaum amassed with increasing success.
Over the years, the collection Grünbaum had built up reached a size that was difficult to manage as a hobby. Upon meeting the equally passionate collector Rolf Fehlbaum, initiator of the Vitra Design Museum founded in 1989 and already a collector of objects from everyday and popular culture in the 1980s, Grünbaum decided to sell. With around 1,200 objects, the world's toy robot collection at the time changed hands and moved to Weil am Rhein.
What may have seemed like the end of a collecting career was ultimately just a brief respite for Grünbaum. Before long, his interest in assembling beautiful, special, and rare objects outweighed his newly gained free time. This time, his rekindled passion focused primarily on furniture and lighting design, as well as objects made of fine Murano glass.
After Peter Grünbaum ended his professional career as the owner of a successful marketing agency in 2005 after three decades, he finally decided to make collecting his profession. In the following years, Grünbaum invested his energy in expanding and raising awareness of his ever-growing collection, which, by today's standards, is clearly an understatement. From the very beginning, the focus was not solely on collecting, but also on offering selected objects for sale. The basis for this was the website 1000-objekte.ch, operated by Grünbaum, with an integrated online shop, and a gallery in downtown Zurich.
While Grünbaum's collection continued to grow in the following years through the acquisition of various collections and the variety of objects it contained continued to increase. The sales also proved to be a success, with more than 4,000 objects sold. In 2015, Peter Grünbaum finally decided to start a new phase of his life and closed the gallery in Zurich.
Today, Peter Grünbaum's collection includes more than 6,000 objects, from the rare Vateria Artistica mosaic vase to the Swatch watch from the early 1980s, which he now only displays in his private four walls in a changing arrangement.
Detailed information can be found here:
Rarities in Glass, Ceramics, Furniture, Lighting. Exclusive Gifts. – 1000 Objects
www.1000-objekte.ch (@petergruenbaum) • Instagram photos and videos
1000 objects | Zurich | Facebook
Event – 1000 Objects (1000-objekte.ch)
Murano Glass Collector's Item – 1000 Objects (1000-objekte.ch)
Collecting as a hobby is deeply rooted in human nature. In surveys, three out of four Germans say they collect themselves. The objects of desire are as diverse as their collectors: from beer mats and porcelain figurines to historical artifacts and paintings by the "Old Masters," there is hardly anything that is not collected, although it is usually the wallet that determines whether the objects have any value in themselves.
Peter Grünbaum's career as a collector also began early in life with the widely available classics: stamps and coins were among the first objects that awakened his passion for collecting. However, less conventional objects quickly followed, such as toy robots, space toys, and Mickey Mouse comics, which Grünbaum amassed with increasing success.
Over the years, the collection Grünbaum had built up reached a size that was difficult to manage as a hobby. Upon meeting the equally passionate collector Rolf Fehlbaum, initiator of the Vitra Design Museum founded in 1989 and already a collector of objects from everyday and popular culture in the 1980s, Grünbaum decided to sell. With around 1,200 objects, the world's toy robot collection at the time changed hands and moved to Weil am Rhein.
What may have seemed like the end of a collecting career was ultimately just a brief respite for Grünbaum. Before long, his interest in assembling beautiful, special, and rare objects outweighed his newly gained free time. This time, his rekindled passion focused primarily on furniture and lighting design, as well as objects made of fine Murano glass.
After Peter Grünbaum ended his professional career as the owner of a successful marketing agency in 2005 after three decades, he finally decided to make collecting his profession. In the following years, Grünbaum invested his energy in expanding and raising awareness of his ever-growing collection, which, by today's standards, is clearly an understatement. From the very beginning, the focus was not solely on collecting, but also on offering selected objects for sale. The basis for this was the website 1000-objekte.ch, operated by Grünbaum, with an integrated online shop, and a gallery in downtown Zurich.
While Grünbaum's collection continued to grow in the following years through the acquisition of various collections and the variety of objects it contained continued to increase. The sales also proved to be a success, with more than 4,000 objects sold. In 2015, Peter Grünbaum finally decided to start a new phase of his life and closed the gallery in Zurich.
Today, Peter Grünbaum's collection includes more than 6,000 objects, from the rare Vateria Artistica mosaic vase to the Swatch watch from the early 1980s, which he now only displays in his private four walls in a changing arrangement.
Detailed information can be found here:
Rarities in Glass, Ceramics, Furniture, Lighting. Exclusive Gifts. – 1000 Objects
www.1000-objekte.ch (@petergruenbaum) • Instagram photos and videos
1000 objects | Zurich | Facebook
Event – 1000 Objects (1000-objekte.ch)
Murano Glass Collector's Item – 1000 Objects (1000-objekte.ch)