Antique glass and inspiring room settings in this £3.00 charity-shop bargain book from Hungerford
I've loved Friday afternoons ever since I was five years old, when it was "paint and clay time" heaven in my infant school. The sense of anticipation and "Play-time" has stayed with me ever since, not even dampened by my later years in my Grammar School, (Newport High School in Monmouthshire), where Friday afternoons meant double maths and Physics lessons!
Play time for me still calls on a Friday afternoon, when I often drive to Hungerford for just an hour's browsing in the charity shops and Antiques Arcade. I think even I excelled myself in the treasure-economy stakes today - since I acquired ALL the items below for under a total of five UK pounds (approx $8.00). Credit crunch - get thee behind me - there are still hundreds of treasures to be found for a pittance!
These two sadly damaged little characters were a mere 25 pence (50 cents) each - missing arms a plenty, but otherwise of fine quality modelling and painting. They will go at the back of the china cabinet, where their "armless" nature will go unheeded.
This gentleman was more expensive, at one whole UK pound - a nice addition to my collection of Victorian chimney figures which would have been cheaply produced at the time, but I find full of naive folk charm.
No visit to the Arcade is complete without leaving with a couple of books - today I brought a copy of "Spanish Still Life from Velazquez to Goya" - of which, more later...and also this intriguing book detailing "Five Centuries of Women and Gardens"...
No doubt there will be some ideas in there which will inspire me in Autumn Cottage garden over this coming long Bank Holiday weekend. Fingers crossed for good weather - there is a LOT more digging to do out there!
I'll leave you with the most interesting find of all for me - an image of four of the twelve Victorian mourning cards which I discovered in the Junk shop - all 12 for a pound, and very relevant to my present studies
Quite fascinating, for only two of them even mention Death in the flowery verses inside...choosing to make all manner of other allusions, such as "falling asleep", "nipping in the bud" "going to join the happy throng", "Passing Jordan" and "withdrawing to heaven".
Well, I'm withdrawing to heaven right now - but in my case, that means ONLY going downstairs for a cup of tea on the patio - don't worry, I'm not intending to "Join the Happy Throng" just yet - I'll be back sometime very soon!
In following from blog to blog I stumbled across one I thought might appeal to you:
http://lauriezuckerman.blogspot.com/
Laurie Beth is an "altarista", lives in Ft Collins, Colorado, and is influenced by the traditions of the Hispanic Southwest. She has photos taken at the church in Chimayo, New Mexico (famously painted by Georgia O'Keefe) which is a favorite of mine. Today is our national holiday "Memorial Day", and I am thinking of many family members. I have several Victorian funeral cards which are a little different than your English ones. Your point about the euphemisms for death was interesting.
Posted by: Margaret Lambert | Monday, May 25, 2009 at 20:31
Lovely, lovely, lovely, Roz. All of it beautiful. No wonder you can't concentrate indoors. We're to have a week of fair weather and I'm off to water the plants so they can soak it all in before the sun shines on them. So, what ARE chimney figures? I see that they're ceramic figurines, but why "chimney"? Hugs,
Posted by: Ardi | Friday, May 29, 2009 at 14:04