He built a huge, unique collection on the West in China, and vice versa – Hong Kong-based lawyer’s life of collecting
- Roy Delbyck explains how he amassed his collection of printed materials, from diaries to film tickets, on the West in China and the Chinese experience in the US
My parents were first-generation Americans, the children of immigrants. My dad’s father came over in the 1880s from Vladivostok, Russia, and my mum’s parents were from Poland. My dad was an insurance broker.
I was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1952. I’m the youngest of three and have an older brother and sister. When I was one, we moved to Freeport, about 25 miles from New York. My siblings were somewhat raucous, but for me it was a pretty idyllic childhood and I was given tons of freedom.
In the genes
I’ve always been a retrospective person; I always look back. The gene or predilection for collecting was there ready to be stoked when I was a kid.
As a seven-year-old, I spent my pocket money on baseball cards at the local five-and-dime store. My team was – and still is – the New York Yankees. Each pack had five cards and a slab of bubblegum. To get all the cards you wanted, you had to keep buying more packets and swap them with friends.
From about the age of 10, I collected stamps – but not well, because I’d buy mint stamps and then glue them into my stamp book. And then coins for a while. There was the fun of finding and acquiring things for my collections, the historical aspect. I wasn’t so much into trading them. It was the hunt and just having it.
