Cabinet of Curiosity Redux

Many contemporary cabinets of curiosities may pay lip service to 3-dimensionality. Yet as long as there are souvenirs, and souvenir hunters, the old-fashioned curio cabinet may live on.


To celebrate April Fools' Day, here is a short ode to part of mine.

Lewis Chessmen. And women,
Long-ago walrus-tooth Scandinavians.
Dyed red, says Scottish white,
Stains, so black is England's.

Resin Scots, Swedes, and English people,
Modern, life-sized and miniature.
Kings, queens, warriors,
A tiny bishop and a berserker.

A silver llama and a Venetian pachyderm, 
Souvenirs of a well-travelled speaker.
Delicate French demitasses and a Greek vase,
Was she sketched and dressed by her painter?

Cup, saucer, Limoges box and basket weave,
Dijon honey pot.
Viennese demis and a cardinal perched
On a Karlovy Vary spa cup – hot!

Hungarian urn from the antique fair,
Herend -- a real find.
Venerable Chinese resin. Tang zodiac,
Divided by empty Indian kohl. Brass, mind.

Rural relaxation, eh?
Rough and wooden.
Museum replica netsuke,
Grain-gorged rats and carped monkey.

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Note

Courtesy amazon.ca

Red on the Lewis Chessmen has been interpreted as colouring or as unwanted stains. You’ll see Harry Potter playing with the red-and-white set in one of the films. Remember, JK Rowling has lived in Scotland. I found the brown pieces in Stockholm’s Gamla stan. The berserker’s biting his shield and the bishop is small because the large variety wasn’t sold separately. Want to know more? Take a gander at The Lewis Chessmen (British Museum Objects in Focus).

Courtesy amazon.co.uk

The bodies of people on the originals of white ground lekythoi (the type of Greek vase shown) were sketched first and then clothed. As the paint fades, so does the clothing. Like to know more about Greek vases? The History of Greek Vases is an exhaustive work. I found my copy at the ROM shop a few years ago. You might also enjoy A Handbook of Greek Art: A Survey of the Visual Arts of Ancient Greece. I’ve had my copy for decades.

The water at Bohemian Karlovy Vary (aka Carlsbad), the Czech spa, comes in a variety of temperatures, all hot. Drinking from the spout keeps you from burning your mouth. Should you be in the Prague area, it’s a fun and picturesque day trip. Check it out if you can. The water’s cheaper than that on offer in Bath’s Pump Room, and has more taste than the free water at Evian. Not that you want to be guzzling it.

I found the replica Tang dynasty Chinese zodiac figures (dragon and snake) at a Harvard museum gift shop several years ago. The monkey on the carp is older and came from Toronto’s ROM. The Peabody-Essex Museum shop has had a wonderful selection of replica netsuke both times I visited it in the past year. So the rats on the bag of grain and the pig on the leaf (not shown, to the rats' left) are from Salem.

The man on the rocker has a female companion. They’re from a trip over a decade ago to the Gaspé. There's a similarly-sized, but painted sailor behind them. He’s an antique from who-knows-where.

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Books mentioned

• The Lewis Chessmen (British Museum Objects in Focus)
• The History of Greek Vases
• A Handbook of Greek Art: A Survey of the Visual Arts of Ancient Greece