It is, of course, perfectly possible to get good advice and buy first-rate drawings without ever leaving home.

Hodgkin bought Indian drawings for no other reason than that he could not live without them.

He never bought manuscripts, drawings or photographs, which the museum began to acquire when important collections of each went up for sale in the 1980's.

It was not in Catherine's nature to buy drawings in ones and twos.

Mr. Prat has bought drawings by major artists that other collectors have overlooked as the efforts of minor draftsmen.

Lawrence even bought drawings from the ten-year-old Von Holst.

So she began buying prints and drawings.

"But then I discovered that I could buy old-master drawings for even less than a few pounds each - and began to collect them instead."

He bought Greek and Roman antiquities and 19th-century architectural drawings.

He also bought contemporary crafts, architectural woodwork and drawings.