New home

I have moved my blog to a new home. All of my curating exploits can now be found here.

Object Number 21

Object Name: Silver Doc Martins
Accessioned: 2011
Donor: purchase
Notes: To add to my growing collection of Docs

Comments: Not huge amount to say about these bad boys. As you may have gathered from previous posts, I love me some Doc Martins - velvet or otherwise. These ones were decidedly easier to procure than their velvet companions, being advertised in Schuh on O'Connell Street on a giant two story high poster.
Recently I was back in my old college and it was brought home to me how associated I am with my boots. An old lecturer exclaimed "Where are your big boots?!" as I was wearing a very girly pair of ballet pumps. The truth was that I'm now worried about wearing out my different pairs of treasured boots. I rarely wear my velvet ones (what if they got wet?!) and my gold (not pictured) and these silver ones are starting to rub so the metallic finish is coming off. I know I can't have these boots forever and I'll get over that - but will I still be me if I had none of these foot adornments? I shudder to think what the answer is...

Object Number 20

Object Name: The Beatles - All You Need is Love tin
Accessioned: 2002 (?)
Donor: gift
Notes: A set of stackable tins inspired by the movie Yellow Submarine.

Comments: From about age 13/14 I was obsessed with the Beatles. I would slavishly save up the £15 or £16 to buy each of the thirteen original UK released albums, having to specially order the less popular ones through my local record shop. Predictably my first album was Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band but I think one of the last I got was the Yellow Submarine as this was a few years before it was remastered and re-released. I loved the movie and the soundtrack - it is pure 1960s psychedelia and was utterly bizarre. Travelling through a fantasy land the Beatles (voiced by actors, not the Beatles themselves) are on a mission to save Pepperland which is under threat from the Blue Meanies. The Beatles use their music (and happiness) to defeat these curmudgeonly evil-doers. This includes using the song All You Need Is Love that builds a tower of song lyrics to torment the Meanies.
My brother bought me this tin on the back of that love I had for renting these movies. I rented them over and over from the local video store on VHS along with the other three movies by the Beatles (A Hard Day's Night, Help and The Magical Mystery Tour).
Mostly the tin stores pins and buttons these days. It is a lovely (and suitably tasteful) reminder of that passion I still have for the Beatles - however over-rated some people claim them to be!

Object Number 19

Object Name: Platypus Soft Toy
Accessioned: early 1990s
Donor: gift
Notes: One of a number of Australian soft toys I own.

Comments: An aunt of mine was also lucky (?) enough to by my Godmother. As a Catholic this basically means that in the event my parents are incapable or lapse in their duty to raise me in the faith my Godparents should step up to the plate. In the absence of that need, Godparents send you presents! My Godmother is a nurse who spent a few years working in Australia in the early to mid 1990s.
Mostly she sent me soft toys as when I was little I loved all manner of stuffed animals. I used to go to sleep every night with all my soft animals arranged from biggest (at my pillow) which was a bear called Rupert, right down to the smallest of the animals at the end of the bed. It just so happens that the biggest bear, Rupert, was originally my Godmother's bear. When I had him as a child he was over 25 years old. He was a well loved bear who has now been returned to his original owner when she had her own family.
I think the funniest thing about this Platypus is that he is about twice as big as a real one and he looks like a furry sausage with felt ducks feet stuck on! He is eminently cuddle-able though, you can not fault him there. 

The Museumist

I was recently contributed to the "I'm a Museum Person" series on The Museumist.
My humble ramblings can be found here.

Object Number 18

Object Name: Sindy Badge
Accessioned: 2009
Donor: purchased
Notes: random purchase on Ebay

Comments: I have to admit this will not be the last Sindy item to appear on this blog. I was a Sindy girl my entire childhood, in my eyes Barbie just couldn't measure up to her. I grew up in the era of the Hasbro Sindy, which in a lot of ways mimicked Barbie in her penchant for pink and her figure. Although her feet and her chest were relatively flat in comparison to her American rival.
I'm not going to give you a biography of the Sindy doll as there are plenty of websites and blogs that do that already. I'll just tell you why I felt the need to buy this badge. As I said I grew up with the Hasbro Sindy but my sister had Pedigree Sindy - or as they are some times known "Big-headed Sindys". She had a whole doll house full of late 1970s to early 1980s furniture, complete with an orange kitchen and a blue bedroom. As I got older I was allowed to play with this doll house and my small headed dolls had their time renting this mid century gem. Now I feel the need to own my own, perhaps for myself or for a future family but part of me wants my own small plastic orange kitchen.
The second reason I bought this is just pure collecting. Growing up in the 1980s and 1990s I was like many kids and owned many collections. Stamps, coins, keyrings, fancy paper, pencils and pens, soaps, Puppy in my Pocket and badges. Although my old collection of badges is long gone, this represents them. Or maybe it's just a rusty old badge.

Object Number 17

Object Name: Agfamatic 2008
Accessioned: 2009
Donor: gift
Notes: My mother's old camera.

Comments: This is the camera my mother used from the 1970s until the 1990s. As a child it was the most satisfying camera to take a photograph on based on the mechanical action alone. The excited clockwork noise it made as you slide the mechanism to roll forward the film, which gave it the name "Ritsch-Ratsch-Kameras", was a delight to me and still is. Anything with a big red button like that has its own particular attraction anyway.
It was a follow on from the camera featured in Object Number 6, it's film came in a neat little cartridge and produced tiny thin strips of negatives. Mostly I remember my mother having to take pictures outside as getting the flash to operate was a little tricky. When she did use it though it made that wonderful high pitched warming up noise. Not only did the flash screw onto the side but it was hooked up using a cable to the body of the camera.
Looking through the view finder, a little yellowed and with the silver brackets to aid in centring, makes everything look like the 1980s to me. Everything look just a little vintage, as if the world is framed in the paler, round-edged photographs of my childhood.

Object Number 16

Object Name: Purple Velvet Doc Martins
Accessioned: 2009
Donor: gift
Notes: Given to me by my other half.

Comments: There are a few things that I am remembered by. One of those is a pair of black velvet Doc Martens I wore in primary school when I was about 11/12 years old. My aunt gave them to me and they were 1980s velvet romantic goth magic represented in boot form. I wore them, literally, into the ground. Towards the end they actually looked like they had mange but I loved them. When the velvet wore away so much it cracked to show the canvas underneath I attempted to colour in the exposed areas with a black permanent marker. How I loved those boots. What made that time more special was that those boots forged a very long lasting friendship. Emily, another slight eccentric like myself, wore the most amazing Docs money could buy at the time.  She had not one, but two pairs of fabulous footwear: A silver pair with an oil stain-like iridescence and a pair that were bright patent red. These boots form our first memories of each other, and all most 15 years later we still talk about those boots.
So it was my glorious other half that tasked himself with finding me a new pair. Having searched the internet for them myself, all I ever found was blog posts bemoaning the lack of velvet Docs. They appear to have been an exclusively 1980s phenomena. So with a tall order and a girlfriend with rather large feet, my other half stalked Ebay patiently. It finally paid off. Last year he secured a pair of purple velvet, size 8 genuine Doc Martens for an undisclosed amount. Unfortunately I regard them so highly I barely wear them. I hope to change that (somewhat) in the new year.

Object Number 15

Object Name: Maple Leaf
Accessioned: 1998 (?)
Donor: gift
Notes:Collected in the garden of Louisa May Alcott.

Comments: In the late nineties my brother spent some time in Boston. Being a young girl, I had inevitably read Little Women and it's sequels. So while visiting Alcott's house in Boston, he collected this leaf for me from the garden. He has always been very good at finding objects like this, regardless of whether they are 'found' like this, that mean a vast amount. As I was so smitten with this when it was presented to me my mother got it framed for me. I rediscovered it amongst items carefully packed boxes from my later adolescence a few years ago. It now has pride of place on my wall. Of course this has even greater meaning now as my brother moved to Canada. If I believed in fate, I might read into that and this entry would be a lot longer.

Object Number 14

Object Name: Worry Dolls or Sorgenbeutel
Accessioned: 2004 (?)
Donor: gift
Notes:gift from a friend.

Comments: I suppose these items don't a very complicated story, but they are very beautiful. A friend of mine was studying German and spent a year abroad in Germany. She now lives there, I suppose good beer in that quantity is hard to pass up. I think she bought these in the Nuremberg Christmas market along with a Christmas lantern. So like my Mammoth worry dolls, you tell these three your worries, place them under your pillow and the next day you will feel better! Obviously my friends think I worry too much, maybe I should distract myself further by making my own.

Object Number 13

Object Name: Globe
Accessioned: December 2009
Donor: gift
Notes: Bought by my mother.

Comments: Last Christmas my parent's house was rampant with nostalgia. Myself and my siblings delved into bookshelves, investigated cupboards and riffled through photo albums. This resulted in my mother trying to encourage her children to take away more of their possessions, or to allow for them to be given away. It was at this point the old globe was produced. My mother bought this in the 1980s when we were all kids, it was around the same time she got The World Book and the Encyclopaedia. Seeing as I was born right in the middle of the 1980s, this is the world as it was when I entered it. In particular there is still an East and West Germany, and Eastern Europe looks very different. A lot of the older names of countries in Africa and Asia are still noted, such as Ceylon. Seeing as I was the only one with any interest in an out-dated globe it came home with me. So really this globe is really mine now as a product of navel gazing...

Object Number 12

Object Name: Gilt Silver Lamp Stand
Accessioned: March 2010
Donor: gift
Notes: bought by my mother in a lot at an auction.

Comments: For many years my mother did quite a lot of flower arranging. To find interesting, and more unusual objects to incorporate into her arrangements, she used to go to local 'lot' auctions. In these kinds of auctions you buy an entire box, or a 'mixed lot'. As far as I know this lady emerged from such auction. I have always loved this lady, who adorned my mother's sideboard for many years. After expressing an interest in recent years in Art Nouveau it was decided that I would be the 'silver lady's' next rightful owner. So earlier this year, surrounded by old books and some childhood soft toys, she made her way to my house in a borrowed suit case.
She appears to be from the late 19th or early 20th century and she is stamped with the letters WMF EP. WMF is a German company, which still trades today. EP stands for electroplated.  In her previous life she had a very industrious polisher for an owner as most of her silver had been rubbed off. You can see this in her now silvery 'highlights' around the features in her face, the folds of her dress and her toes. When I examined her, I remembered that as a child I polished her just as exuberantly. I realised this based on the amount of whitish polish that was deposited all over her. Over the course of a number of days, using a little warm water and mild soap I cleaned her from top-to-toe. I used ear buds and toothpicks to clean it out from from the leafy detail on her plinth.
She appears to have been a lamp originally, but she arrived to us sans lamp fixture. So that she was not holding her arms aloft needlessly, my mother found a candle that fits perfectly. Maybe someday I could find her a suitable glass lamp to hold, as I think she might be beyond being reinstated as a lamp. I might get her re-plated someday, although as someone interested in the history of objects, I do love the story her sparse silver tells.

Object Number 11

Object Name: Star Trek Cuff links
Accessioned: October 2009
Donor: gift
Notes: Given to me by my other half.

Comments: These were proudly presented to me last year. They were a triumph of a gift as not only am I huge Star Trek fan but I had recently succeeded in finding a ladies shirt for using cuff links. Sourcing a reasonably priced ladies shirt for wearing cuff links was a saga of almost epic proportions spanning most of a year. Successful in the end I am now the proud owner of two pairs but I think these are my favourite. Not only that they came in this very snazzy box. Although I wonder if this vignette tells you more about my reading patterns than my need to accessorise outside my gender...
This year for Halloween I think I may have to go Original Series full female science officer.

Object Number 10

Object Name: Flower Press
Accessioned: unknown
Donor: inherited
Notes: Screw shut press for preserving flowers.

Comments: This flower press was in my house for as long as I can remember, I honestly don't know who exactly whom it belonged to. I have always loved gardening and flowers. I seem to have inherited this love from my mother, who in turn was introduced to gardening by her grandfather as a little girl. My mother used to do a lot of flower arranging with both fresh and dried flowers when I was growing up. So I grew up around flowers as a little cottage industry. It has all of those associations for me and the design of the Dog Rose on the front is beautiful in of itself. I can't remember the last time I actually pressed flowers in it, or what I would do them if I did! Do people press flowers any more? Or is it just fairies?

Object Number 9

Object Name: Woolly Mammoth Worry Doll
Accessioned: 2010
Donor: gift
Notes: Sent from Chicago in a box of wonders from a good friend.

Comments: For awhile I worked with a truly amazing group of people. The five of us all got along so well, and worked together very well. It was one of those work dynamics that you might only be lucky enough to have once or twice in your life. Last year one of our troupe headed off to the distant shores in the U.S.A. to live in Chicago. Early this year she sent us a 'box of wonders', mostly from the Field Museum in Chicago. We all got a little gift and mine was our little pipe-cleaner friend you see here. Seeing as I have been studying part time she sent me this little fellow to help me through the more stressful times.
The little blurb on the back says it all:
"Let the Field Museum's exclusive Woolly Mammoth Worry Doll trample your troubles away! ... With animals this big, your worries don't stand a chance!"

Object Number 8

Object Name: Handmade Fabric Frog
Accessioned: December 2007
Donor: gift
Notes: Handmade for me by a very good friend as a Christmas present. I received this and some delicious homemade fudge.

Comments: This little frog has lived on my bookshelf, usually in the company of the choice few stuffed animals I still own. My friend of many years made it for me and he is made of toweling material. His cheerful smile and almost diving stance make him look both peaceful and busy at the same time. In Ireland there is only one type of frog, Rana temporaria. I think the only time I saw a live frog up close was when my cat caught one and proudly deposited it in our kitchen.
This little guy might one day get a little crown and then he can be a little frog prince.

Object Number 7

Object Name: Carved Wooden Elephants
Accessioned: 2010
Donor: gifts
Notes: Larger darker elephant is from Africa and my parents have owned it for years. The smaller one is from India and was bought for me during a trip to India in January 2010.

Comments: As far back as I can remember the larger elephant has been in the house. It came from Kenya, bought by a great uncle who worked there in the 1970s. I think I played with it a lot as a child, it has been drawn on, and has some chips missing from its feet. He also has a large part of one ear broken off. You can tell it's an African elephant as it has bigger ears. The little Indian elephant was bought for me while my brother was on a working trip to India. Looking as these two always makes me think of the book Elephants on Acid: And Other Bizarre Experiments (Harvest Original), and adds to my bemusement of the human condition...

Object Number 6

Object Name: Agfa ISO-Rapid IF
Accessioned: 2010
Donor: from parent's house
Notes: Camera that may have been bought at a jumble sale. Takes a propietary film called ISO-PAN film, that was an early auto load camera from the 1960s.

Comments: My mother gave me this camera after cleaning out some cupboards during a spring clean. We don't know who this camera belonged to. She thinks maybe one of my siblings may have bought it at a charity shop or jumble sale as she doesn't remember anyone ever using it. It dates from the 1960s, and thus is a little old for my family to have used it when the specific film was available. It was a rival camera to the Kodak Instamatic. Unfortunately the mechanism for the flash bulb doesn't work anymore.  I have a love for old cameras that has led me to collect them, especially ones that had a specific film made for them. These cameras will be featured in the posts to follow. So although this camera will probably never take another photograph it is a treasured object.

Object Number 5

Object Name: Attenti ai Gatti Plaque
Accessioned: 2009
Donor: gift
Notes: An Italian ceramic plaque "Beware of the Cats"

Comments: While holidaying in Italy my father bought me this very adapt plaque. As the proud owner of two black and white cats this serves an important role. A lot of effort went into making sure it stated the plural. I hope that I will always have the honour of sharing my life with cats. Somewhat reminiscent of Hugh Leonard, Rover and Other Cats.

Object Number 4

Object Name: Wooden Tulips
Accessioned: 2007
Donor: gift
Notes: Four wooden tulips from Holland

Comments: The first bouquet of fresh flowers bought for me ever came from the local Tesco. My reaction was so heart felt that the giver felt compelled to allow me to feel like that more often. When visiting Holland he bought me these flowers. When these flowers start to wilt he will buy me some more.
I now have some real tulips blossoming in my front garden. In a world where property and hedge fund bubbles burst and have left a lot of people aghast the idea of the 'Tulip Bubble' seems like it could have happened along with it. It is something that tickles me in a dark way, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and The Madness of Crowds.