A Letter From The Publisher, Dec. 31, 1979

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Sugarplums, humbug! After covering the pre-Christmas offerings at some of the world's finest auction houses for this week's cover story on the "collectibles" craze, several TIME collectors had visions of something more elaborate dancing in their heads. Their Christmas lists follow.

Senior Writer Michael Demarest, who wrote the story on the growing rage to collect everything from Bruegels to Barbie dolls, is a traditionalist in these matters. "A Louis XV marquetry cabinet would be nice," he says, "though I would be quite content to receive a second painting by Jack Yeats [Poet William Butler Yeats' brother] to go with the one I have." Demarest began covering the auction scene—and, inevitably, acquiring some treasures for himself—while stationed in TIME'S London bureau from 1958 to 1961. "It was convenient," he says, "and I got very good advice. Sotheby's was around the corner from our offices, and its chairman, Peter Wilson, used to lunch at TIME'S cafeteria."

Reporter-Researcher Georgia Harbison, who interviewed the owners and patrons of Manhattan's top auction houses, shares Demarest's taste for fine art. "Chinese lacquer chests interest me, and so do impressionist paintings. I wouldn't mind getting a Renoir for Christmas. It can be a very small one."

Some of those who worked on the story were knowledgeably specific in their selections. "An intact Jaipur vase to replace one cracked en route from the Far East," requests Chicago Orientalia Buff Pat Delaney, who covered the Midwest auction scene. Erik Amfitheatrof, who interviewed directors of Sotheby's and Christie's in London—and who began buying Japanese art while reporting from Tokyo in the 1960s—dreams of finding the Hiroshige print White Rain at Shōno under his Christmas tree. "Alas, my chances are slim," he admits. "It was auctioned at Christie's New York this year for $13,000." But no art, thank you, for Art Critic Robert Hughes, who wrote this week's Essay on collecting. Says Hughes, who has received his share of free samples from would-be-but-weren't Picassos: "I'll accept anything anybody chooses to give me, except unsolicited artwork."

Meanwhile, we at TIME hope you find the objects of art you dream of when you open your Christmas packages—and wish you the best for the holiday season.