Payne Family: Collections

Henry George Payne:
Suffering from Deuteranamalous, a form of colour blindness that
causes green and red confusion, Henry is obsessed by what he can
and cannot see. His fascination in birds stems from the myriad
of colours they display, some that he can enjoy and others that
he confuses. The fascination also stems from the species own
ability to see colour. While humans have up to 10,000 cones
cells, which allow them to perceive colour; some species of
birds have up to 120,000 per square millimetre, allowing a bird
like the hummingbird to spot a red flower from over a
kilometre away.

Cecilia Cathcart Payne:
As the daughter of a history teacher, Cecilia was always
lectured about the importance of knowing one's history in order
to make the right decisions in the future. "Hitler would have
won the Second World War if he had read his history books. He
would have known that it was impossible to conquer Russia in
winter," her father told her many times when she showed any sign
of zoning out during one of his history lectures. Consequently,
she collects and looks after anything that has been passed down
to her from her ancestors, in the hope that these objects will
share her relative's life story and protect her from making the
same mistakes again. Her favourite and most complete collection
is her doily collection, made up of hundreds of doilies: hand
made and used by most of the women in her family.

Sophie Emma Payne:
Sophie has always loved shiny things. It is due to this
obsession that her family call her Magpie, or Pie for short. It
is therefore not surprising that she collects spoons. Shining
them regularly and holding them up to the sunlight and watching
them sparkle and reflect.

William George Payne:
As the second born, William is the under-nourished twin:
smaller, weaker and sicklier than his older brother. Unable to
compete physically he has always focused on his intellectual
abilities, enjoying any pursuit that involves books and the
indoors. William is an avid collector who loves categorisation
and the idea that one day his collection may be worth more than
he originally invested in it. He consequently collects a myriad
of things; filling albums with stamps, coins and stickers.
However, his favourite collection is his swap card collection.

George William Payne:
George is the first born of the twins: coordinated, tall and
handsome, with a smile that makes all child-friendly adults weak
at the knees. His ability to get what he wants through the use
of a small smile has made him confident and, at times, a little
impatient. It is therefore not surprising that George chooses to
collect insects. Impatiently squishing them between the pages of
his scrapbook, he treats the collection as a conquest over
another species, rather than a deliberate attempt to analyse and
understand anything scientific about insects.