In 1973 I was working in a junior office job for a large housing association. My department was based in three large and rather grand inter-connected terraced Victorian houses in Edinburgh’s fashionable West End. The offices were on the ground and three upper floors, and the basements were used as storage space for old broken … More Berlin Woolwork
Every year (well, for the last two years and maybe again next year) I spend a very enjoyable week’s intensive study of art history at the summer school run by the Courtauld Institute of Art in Central London. They run the school over four weeks, with eight separate courses offered each week. In 2105 I … More Not a Rembrandt
A few years ago at a local auction I bought a wooden sculpture on a whim. It didn’t cost much. It turned out to be a statue of Saint John the Evangelist, a mediaeval masterpiece which had been lost for more than two centuries after being looted from a church during the French Revolution. I … More Saint Benedict
Here’s a picture of my latest purchase – another big brown pot to add both to my large collection of big brown pots, and to the mystification of many of those around me. I got it last week at Franklin Brown’s (http://franklinbrowns.co.uk/about.html), one of our local auction rooms here in Edinburgh. It cost me £38.00 … More Salt Pig
A few posts ago I wrote about the excitement and anticipation of being asked to have a look at our friend Anne’s late mother’s ceramics collected in France. We went. We saw. A bit of an anti-climax. I was right in thinking that Helen had had good taste: very attractive stuff, but nothing outstanding or valuable. … More Anticlimax follows anticipation
I’m not a completist. Unlike many collectors I feel no compulsion to get uninterrupted sets of cigarette cards, runs of comics, variations of Penny Reds. I have no problem with being interested in many different kinds of interesting and/or beautiful things at the same time. As a result the house is full of multiple half-formed … More Cataloguing (3)
To help prevent my collections from turning into someone else’s Random Treasure, I decided to catalogue them. I reckoned that if I made a detailed record of significant items (including photographs) and made sure that Frances and our daughters know how it can be accessed, then they will be in a good position to do … More Cataloguing (2)
In the past few weeks I’ve been attempting to produce a catalogue of some of my collections. This is mainly due to promptings by Frances, whose argument I paraphrase crudely as follows: what’s going to happen about all your stuff when you kick the bucket? How will I or the children be able to tell … More Cataloguing
An old university friend got in touch with my wife Frances last week and invited us for lunch. We’re going next Monday. Anne and Bill live in Fife, about 50 miles from us, in a big converted farm steading with integral stables for their horses and donkeys. We don’t see them very often but have … More Anticipation
First post – today’s haul of Random treasure … More First Post: Where to Start?
Random Treasure 