H is for How They Come In - They Come Back!

My late Mum was a hoarder, not the daytime schedule/early-evening, TV reality-show, whacko-piles of damp newspaper that eventually kills the occupant in a stairs triggered landslide of old news and sports reports type hoarder, but rather someone who went through the war and it's deprivations, and determined never to throw anything away which might be useful. Consequently the sorting of her estate has been a long, slow process - which is ongoing - and which has thrown-up some interesting stuff, among which was this . . .

. . . I'm not sure if it's an old J&J/Boots fabric-plaster box, or an early Cotton-bud/Q-Tip container, but the contents were momentarily a complete mystery to me (given that she knew I collected this stuff and would pass on the odd bit she did find), until I remembered she had taken a few pieces from my Brother and I, years ago (mid/late-1970's) to try her hand at casting them in silver, using the 'lost-wax' method, but with pre-formed plastics rather than wax sculpts . . . she may have intended to experiment with plaster moulds too, I can't remember.

The reminder of this event was actually a small Britains baby bear (of which I had several in my Ancient Briton army!), which is missing, but I seem to recall both the bear and a small elephant or lion 'not working', so they must have been lost in the 'losing' process?

You can see she took items which might be commercially popular as novelties, Guy the Gorilla was still popular in the national memory, big cats, little cats and pigs are always popular as are rabbits, the highlander was once one of my most prized possessions, like the 'last man standing' Airfix German Paratrooper officer, I had gone to some effort over the painting of him!

There is also the possibility that another incident started the thought process which led to this micro-hoard . . . we were on holiday somewhere, and Mum had made us follow her round some antiques place, you know the sort of thing - with lots of 'kiosks' or bays - and as a reward for our behavior whilst obviously bored, asked us if we'd like to chose something from a cheapie cabinet, I can't recall what my brother chose, but I chose a piglet, landscaped on a plinth; a mini vignette. She then tried to talk me out of it with a disdainful "You don't want that"!, but I was adamant, and the thing was purchased, what she had spotted which I hadn't was that it was a Britains piglet (as above) heavily glossed (black & white) to resemble glazed ceramic, landscaped with Pollyfilla^TM stained with watercolours, on a stack of old coat-buttons, glued together and painted gold! She pointed all this out back at the car, but hadn't wanted to be rude in front of the dealer! I was still happy with it, but the pig soon broke-free of the filler and joined the other animals in the farm tub!

And no - I don't know why there's a Christmas Cracker miniature compass in there with them!

Point of focus was different on the two shots! Highlights include the Britains running rabbit and sitting cat, along with the piglet being fed from the later farm figures' set.

Now . . . I thought I had one of these, but it hasn't turned up in all the sorting and consolidating I've been doing since January, so finding our childhood pair (Mum bought us one each in Fleet Toys, not because we wanted them but because she thought they were dinky!) has been a useful bonus, although one of them has been more chewed than the other; I'll blame my brother as I just don't remember playing with them that much!

This article - on stone animals - has been in the 'long-queue' since 2014 (ignore the given date - it's how I sort stuff in Picasa), and now needs a complete re-shoot, which won't be done for a while yet, but one image was worth pulling-up and adding to this post as it's . . .

. . . another Duck Billed Platypus! Although if you know anything about these critters Duck Billed Dinobeast is more apt, they have a poison spur and a bad temper! But if you are the last/only living species of your entire taxonomic family and genus AND used to be hunted for food by the pink monkeys; you'd be a bit mad.

This one is bronze with 18/22ct gold-leaf on the bill and webbed-claws, the whole soldered/braised (?) to a stone! He's about twice the size of the Britains plastic platypuses, -pusses? Platipii? And must be an upmarket Australian tourist memento thing . . . I have a cheaper miner with pick-axe, in whitemetal, similarly attached to a piece of stone, which might be Antipodean, from the Ruhr or Welsh?

News, Views Etc . . . Shop Display

Just a quickie - SE Riordan's Halloween shop-display is worth a wider audience than the good burghers of the teeming metropolis of Fleet in Hampshire!

Big furry spiders, they were very effective, especially as the shop is in a set-back parade, and you come across them as you walk past a nearby advertising hording and get pushed toward the shop by a cut-in for buses and disabled parking!

O is for Ostentatious

A friend of my Mother's was up at Southeby's for a lecture the other week and they (the attendees) were invited to view the forthcoming action while they were there, Helen kindly thought of me and took these shots of a rather over-the-top chess set.

There is a history of chess sets linked to toy soldiers...well it's obvious isn't it, once you have a range of figures there is an almost natural thought-progression to making them into two sets of 16 and lining them up on a Victorian kitchen floor!

But a bespoke set is a different matter, and while the section on the subject in Garratt's encylopedia is well worth the read and we all know about the sets made by Crescent and Britains and so on, or the sets designed by Stadden, this is in a different league!

Silver, silver-gilt, pearls, precious and semi-precious stones, enamel, suede, fine engraving upon engraving...but piled-up. Do the bases need extra stones, more tooling, another line of enamel? It's like they couldn't stop themselves!

More pictures here, but a final hamer price of £17,000+ when things of rareity and beauty sell for much more these days would suggest the buyers found it a bit OTT as well?

The base is too busy, the four corner knights confusing...not that playing light blue against dark blue is going to make forward planning easy, especially when all the royalty are in red! A lovely thing for the blog, but leave it to new-money...this needs a marble sample-table in a footballer's Geoff's Oak mansion really...he says - judgementally!

A is for 'And'....And now for something completely different...

Occasionally you see something exquisitely HO-OO (as Airfix would have described them!), but way out of you comfort zone price-wise, not because they are old and rare but because like these from Link's of London; they are made of something valuable...

Silver and silver-gilt (gold-plated silver)! I photographed these one cold night back in 2007, walking up through Guildford from the station. I had to take scores of shots due to the reflections off the shop window or the display cabinets and the problem focusing through the glass, which the camera kept detecting etc...

As a result every time I've looked at them in Picasa I've just thought "can't be bollocked!", but as you can see; in the end I've been through them and rescued what I could.

Basically - if memory serves - there was a large and small Noah's Ark, Noah and his wife in front of their new house...old house? Lots of stand-alone pairs of animals, something nativity-looking and one or two other pieces with prices starting at around £20 for a pair of smaller animals.

Highlights are in gilt, or a gloss black I assume to be an enamel (proper kiln-fired [or blow-torched?] enamel, not 'hobby' paint). They also serve to reminded me of the number one item on my 'Wants List'...

...as you enter the British Museum, the Egyptian room is straight in front of you up some stairs from the main foyer. After a couple of large chunks of carved masonry there is (or used to be) a small glass cabinet about the height of a man, centrally placed, with several glass-shelves displaying little treasures, among which are an 18-20mm Pharaoh and his Queen sitting on their thrones, just like the Atlantic ones, but nicer, and made of pure gold...I want them! But I can't have them! Wouldn't you like a Noah's Ark with all the pairs of animals? I would!

Any generous millionaires reading this; you can get my bank details from Natwest...for donations to the Aspergics Toy Research Foundation! What do you mean, you've never heard of it?