The last of our series on personal collections, this month we’re focusing on some of the biggest and most unusual collections of all – from teeth to traffic cones.

The last of our series on personal collections, this month we’re focusing on some of the biggest and most unusual collections of all – from teeth to traffic cones.

 

Teeth, toothbrushes and toothpaste

 

Did you know that a monk, Brother Giovanni Battista Orsenigo, is in the Guinness Book of World Records for a personal collection of 2,000,744 human teeth? He worked in Rome as a dental surgeon from 1870 to the early 1900s, and made a point of keeping all the teeth he extracted.

 

On a less gruesome note, Grigori Fleicher of Russia has a collection of over 1,320 different toothbrushes, and Val Kolpakov, a dentist practising in the United States, has a collection of 2,037 different toothpaste tubes.

 

Garden gnomes, in the thousands

 

Ann Atkin of Devon, England has the world’s largest collection of garden gnomes, numbering over 2,000. She maintains the Gnome Reserve and Wildflower Garden, which spans four acres and features gnomes of every description in their “natural habitats”.

 

A collection of celebrities’ hair

 

John Reznikoff of the United States has the Guinness World Record for the largest collection of celebrity hair, including locks of hair from Beethoven, Napoleon, Abraham Lincoln, Marilyn Monroe, and Albert Einstein.

 

19,571 erasers

In Germany, Petra Engels has a phenomenal collection of 19,571 unique erasers, gathered from over 110 different countries and displayed in 22 glass cases. Engels began collecting erasers when she was nine years old.

 

World’s biggest collection of traffic cones

David Morgan of Oxfordshire, England has a personal collection that includes roughly two-thirds of all the different types of traffic cones ever made. Morgan is the sales director for Oxford Plastic Systems, which is a leading producer of pylons.

 

For any kind of collection

XtraSpace Self Storage

At XtraSpace, we provide secure, affordable storage space, so you can free up space in your home or garage and still keep your personal collection safe. Check our branches page for a self-storage facility near you or contact us for more information.

 

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