Looking over some of the 11,000 treasured pieces of paper that have consumed his life for 34 years, Dwight Cleveland readily admits that he is out of the ordinary.
But one of his most treasured pieces is a wall of tiles by Athos Bulcão, a Brazilian designer whose tile work adorns many of Oscar Niemeyer's Modernist works in Brasília.
"My responsibility is to be watchful for the public's most treasured piece of land," he said.
"And with your permission," he added, drawing from that album, " 'Poinciana.' " His tone suggested the gentlemanly flourish of a museum director whisking the shroud off a treasured piece.
The figures are charming, as are the sun-splashed furnishings, but Ms. Acosta's most treasured piece of décor is a small framed drawing in black crayon that hangs in the narrow hallway.
'Twas a week before Christmas in 1953 when the artwork of Will Elder stirred the attorney general of Massachusetts to ban a comic-book adaptation of Clement Clarke Moore's treasured piece of holiday piffle, "A Visit From St. Nicholas".
My most treasured piece is my Olympia Le Tan book clutch.
But "A Crimson Grail" (Nonesuch 524138) lingers for long, hypnotic stretches on single, disarmingly simple ideas, and the "Treasure State" pieces (Cantaloupe CA 21065) use timbre so seductively that everything else seems secondary.
Most interesting are the exhibits of real treasure including pieces of gold, gold bars, pearls and silver, recovered from pirate shipwrecks, including Blackbeard's own flagship, the "Queen Anne's Revenge".
I will treasure this piece of writing.
