Out local auction house’s final sale of the year has come up with a few nice gems amongst the lots. Odd things, and strange combinations, but sadly no stuffed ferrets. A charming early 19th century boot snuff box with pique decoration inlaid with bone and dated to the sole 1848 [below]
A charming 19th century treen nutmeg grater styled as a post box indicating the inland letter rate with a small picture panel behind A collection of old lighters, a farriers pen knife, a propelling pencil, safety razors and a Chinese knife in a shagreen scabbard etc. A plain silver photograph frame, London 1913, containing a period photograph of a young Royal Artillery officer, together with a late Victorian silver-topped glass jar and a match-holder made from the wood of HMS Victory A collection of approximately 250 china and pottery thimbles A collection of blue glass wares including a liqueur set, a hardwood temple bell, two horn purses, a turbo tiger vacuum cleaner, a metal shoe last, a large 19th century family bible, model soldiers, further glass ware including sugar bowls etc. A 19th century Willcox and Gibbs sewing machine in original wooden case Two 19th century irons, two vintage watering cans and two boxes containing vintage padlocks and keys and screws
Five model ships in glass bottles, a glass model sailing boat, lustre sugar bowl and silver plated figure of a swan [above] An Amplon gramophone arm, a The Little Kracka fishing reel and a cased timepiece A varied lot including a copper bed pan on turned wood handle, two brass fireside companion sets, a Burago model Porsche 356B, old planes and chisels, two Whitefriars glass vases, a small quantity of flat ware, a silver plated toast rack and dish, a vintage beaded bag, unused perfumes including Chanel No.5., vintage boxed dominoes, a small quantity of china etc. Two shelves of interesting vintage wood and metal wares including hip flasks, binoculars, steins, dominoes, buttons, 19th century papier mache box, leather case containing old keys, ceramic and silver plated oval tray, wooden architectural fitments etc.
A vintage wooden cased NHS prescription dispenser [above]
No, I don’t know either! A fine Japanese carved bone sword of impressive size, decorated overall with warriors and formal ornament, Meiji period A vintage Tate & Lyle pine packing case for Afternoon Tea Cube Sugar A stuffed leather figure of a rhinoceros A large metal walking staff surmounted by a crow [right and below]
A big fanfare! Because we have reached the last question in Series 10 of Five Questions.
★★★★★
Question 5: How would you describe yourself in three words?
Totally fucked up.
★★★★★
OK, so that’s the end of this series of Five Questions. I hope you’ve enjoyed it, maybe learnt something (if only about my craziness) and possibly even had a think yourself.
As in the past, if I can find enough good – or crazy – questions I may do another series, sometime next year. So if you have a good question, or something you want to ask, then do please get in touch – or leave a note in the Comments. And yes you can ask literally anything you like!
Meanwhile, it’s the season to wish everyone a very merry Christmas and a fabulous New Year!
And so on to question four and we’re getting towards the end of this tenth series of Five Questions.
★★★★☆
Question 4: Why don’t sheep shrink when it rains?
Because they’re 10% nylon?
But seriously … The real answer is almost certainly to do with the cross-linking of the long-chain protein polymers that make up each hair and the mechanical interlinking between the individual hairs. The more random cross-linking there is, the more the proteins will fold together and the curlier (thus shorter) the hairs. Similarly the more random the mechanical interlinking, the more likely the fibres are to be shorter. Wool has to be processed to remove this interlinking and cross-linking and create straight fibres, which we call unshrunk. Heat, water and mechanical action go to create the randomisation of the linking and thus cause the fibres to shrink in the wash. Now sheep are a natural product; they aren’t processed. Hence their wool is pretty random and effectively pre-shrunk, so they aren’t going to shrink more in the rain.
Here we are at the halfway point, at question three in this series of Five Questions.
★★★☆☆
Question 3: Do illiterate people get the full effect of alphabet soup?
Can illiterate people even know what alphabet soup is?
Clearly if you’re totally illiterate you can’t get the full effect because you don’t even know what letters are let alone identify them.
Although, who knows, there may be a deeper hidden truth.
