As early as the Renaissance, many aristocrats collected curiosities for display to their friends.

The personal apartment of the king contained a section where he collected curiosities.

"It is curious and we magicians collect curiosities, you know."

It was a fashion to collect and display natural curiosities in Victorian England.

Its charter required members to collect on their travels "curiosities" - objects of wonder and strangeness - and in 1825 it opened its first museum.

Meanwhile his taste for collecting books, pictures, and curiosities gradually became an all-absorbing passion.

Dr. French collected other curiosities besides coins.

Odd Folks Home is a half-hour documentary/reality television program showing the homes and collections of people who collect macabre and other curiosities.

Sir Ashton Lever, who was high sheriff in 1771, collected curiosities which he exhibited at Alkrington Hall.

And to collect such curiosities was a perfectly respectable hobby.