The Museum für Gestaltung Zürich is the only institution in Switzerland that has been collecting the products of both utilitarian and artistically sophisticated design cultures since 1875. The collections, encompassing some 500,000 objects, are of international importance and serve to mediate between practice and theory, art and industry, and production and reception. With the exhibition series "New in the Collection" the museum is paying tribute to the substantial gifts it has received. These include the donation by the architects Arthur Rüegg and Ruggero Tropeano of a number of distinguished furniture ensembles and outstanding modernist pieces. The accompanying publication goes beyond the description of the individual objects to demonstrate in an exemplary fashion how a collection can be instrumental to writing well-researched and creatively inspired design history.