Another collection of oddities from the catalogue of our local auctioneers. Not such an interesting-looking sale this time around but as so often it’s a combination of the curious descriptions and the odd juxtaposition of items in the lots which amuses.
First off, who is sitting on whom? …
A boy in a Tyrolean hat holding a monkey seated on a step with three dogs, by W A Richards, signed, oils, gilt framed … and a vacant picture frame.
A shelf full of interesting items including a barometer, binoculars, a model economiser invented by Robert Sterling 1816, a bondage mask, games, etc.
An I.C.A.N. calibration gauge for airspeed corrections, a whisky flask, a Turkish coffee pot, binoculars, and an old camera.
A set of Diplomatic costume by Moss Bros, early 20th century, including frock coats, trousers, boots, bicorn hat and sword, the etched blade marked Scott Son & Claxton, 31 George Street, Hanover Square, London, in original tin carrying box.
6 glass demijohns and a set of golf clubs.
A quantity of garden tools, a Pogo stick, a signed copy of ‘Double or Nothing’ by Thelma Frye, 3 LG mobile telephones and 2 shelves of miscellaneous items, ornaments, miniature coffee cups, a desk blotter, magazine rack, vases, miniature pictures, hand mirror, carriage clock, knick-knacks, etc.
One is left wondering “Why?”.
Biologists and philosophers have pondered for generations the ways in which our modern lives may be disconnected from our pasts, out of synch … When you look beside you in bed, you notice no more than one animal (alternative lifestyles and cats notwithstanding). For nearly all of our history, our beds and lives were shared by multitudes.
Any social organization does well enough if it isn’t rigid. The framework doesn’t matter as long as there is enough looseness to permit that one man in a multitude to display his genius. Most so-called social scientists seem to think that organization is everything. It is almost nothing — except when it is a straitjacket. It is the incidence of heroes that counts, not the pattern of zeros. 
Magnum Ecuador Dark. I like Magnums, all of them. But this dark chocolate is especially good.