Edoardo Flores has a collection of nearly 9,000 “Do Not Disturb” signs from almost 200 countries around the world.
He shared his passion with Collectors Weekly’s Lisa Hix:
A retired training specialist with the International Labor Organization of the United Nations, Flores, who lives in Italy, had the good fortune to spend his 32-year career traveling to places like Bhutan, Iraq, Burma, Pakistan, and Fiji. However, it wasn’t until 1991, when he was nearly 50 years old, that he started keeping the Do Not Disturb signs he encountered on his stays.
“I think most collections start by chance,” Flores tells me over email. “I happened to travel quite a lot for work and stayed in many different hotels. I picked up a first door hanger from a hotel in Islamabad, Pakistan, as a souvenir. Someone back at the office saw it and suggested it would make a nice collection, so I started picking up more on my other trips.
“Before that, I had started keeping spoons with airline logos/names from some of my flights, and although I have several hundred, it never took off as a collection,” he continues. “I also have hundreds of toilet seat bands from hotels. Some of them are quite interesting, but these, too, are not a formal collection. Finally, I more recently started collecting hotel key cards (the magnetic ones), and I already have several thousands.”
