Ebay - love it or hate it - broadens one's horizons as well as one's posterior. Over the past couple of weeks I have sold and sent curios to Germany, China, Italy, Canada, Saudi Arabia and the American states of Ohio, Illinois and Michigan, as well as to places nearer home.
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This antique watercolour painting of a girl knitting woollen stockings is now
winging its way to Boreray, a small island in the Outer Hebrides with a single croft and a population of one...
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Photos by Alasdair Watson.
...if you don't count the flock of feral Hebridean sheep, whose wool is sent down to Makepiece of Hebden Bridge in West Yorkshire to be knitted into fairy tale dresses.
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This pretty Georgian flame-stitch reticule recently found a new home in a place I'd love to visit sometime - Dennis Severs' House in Spitalfields in the East End of London.
Inside, the rooms have been arranged in an "historical imagination" of what life might have been like for a family of Huguenot silk weavers, as if they are still in use and the occupants have only just left. Each room is a "still life drama".
Photo James Brittain.
I wonder what drama my little woollen purse will be part of? Will it hold a lover's billet-doux, a stolen jewel, a widow's last few pence?
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Folk Art and its associated traditions are another passion of mine so I was thrilled the other day when Simon Costin of The Museum of British Folklore fame decided to give a home to this 1930s jig doll or limberjack. (I'm sure he's Fred Astaire!)
These traditional wooden jointed dolls are puppets who dance on the operator's knee, accompanied by a jolly folk tune. We met Mr Costin with his travelling museum a couple of years ago. Will Fred accompany him in his retro caravan, around the British Isles - to quote from the museum's manifesto - promoting, celebrating and revitalising the folk heritage of Britain?
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I do my best to ensure that our Ebay offerings have a safe journey wherever they travel.
I hope this Chinese bowl has arrived home safely,
and that Catharine Susan is dancing around her new home in California...
...and that this Victorian cushion cover will soon be plumped up and gracing someone's office chair in Australia.
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Oh my, such authentic and beautiful things. It must be a real pleasure to deal in items that have such soul.
ReplyDeleteJean x
Well, as you may know dealers are a mixed bunch. To me each day is a treasure hunt. To others it's all baked beans!
DeleteI am so happy that your ebay venture is so successful and that you are finding such lovely appreciative homes for your treasures Nilly.
ReplyDeleteYes - it's really satisfying. And lovely to have appreciative messages from buyers.
DeleteWhat lovely things.
ReplyDeleteThanks for looking Jacqui!
Deletesitting in my ebay chair to type this. . .difficult to remember a time before the internet. . .
ReplyDeleteI agree - but I'm finding it hard to remember that lovely time before blooming Windows 8! Grrr!
DeleteDear Nilly - what very lovely and special connections you are making around the world and you have only just begun.
ReplyDeleteTomorrow we're selling in the real world and there will be many different nationalities. A bit like sport - antiques bring us all together!
DeleteOoh Nilly, re ~homed re ~loved and re~invented...How lovely that your precious finds travel far and wide around the globe...LOVE the Catharine Susan dolly! Hugs Maria x
ReplyDeleteYes, Maria - the fun of posting something to an unknown town in China or returning a piece of beadwork to a Native American tribal member never wears off.
DeleteAmazing how we can access the world from our armchair these days...
ReplyDeleteHow our lives have changed in such a short time.
Julie x
And all that information at our fingertips! Somehow the books still keep piling up though...
DeleteI always knew you cared deeply about all of your "stuff"....and this is lovely, seeing you delighting in the new homes you have found for it. Brilliant. Jx
ReplyDeleteIt's a bit odd - the older I am the more amazing and interesting life becomes. Let's try to make the most of it.
DeleteWhat a lovely, and fascinating, post this is. I have always marvelled at how objects survive and travel from place to place. My home is full of 'stuff' that has migrated from many different countries. It would be great if your recipients posted in photos so that we could see the objects in their new home!
ReplyDeleteWouldn't it just! A lot of them are return customers so I can imagine some of their surroundings and collections.
DeleteOh. Nilly, this is such a lovely post! I like to think of your Chinese bowl going home...yet again, delighted you share these thoughts, connections and lovely things with us. Axxx
ReplyDeleteThe irony is that unlike you I'm not a very intrepid traveller or explorer - I just do it in my imagination.
DeleteWouldn't it just! A lot of them are come returning customers so I can think about some of their atmosphere and choices.
ReplyDeleteThank you Lise!
DeleteFinding you is such a joy and the pics of England in autumn make me yearn to be there.
ReplyDeleteLook forward to reading older entries as time allows and keeping of abreast of recent happenings as well.
Thank you so much!
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