PLACE REPRESENTED: Australia
ITEM: Humourous Ornament
NOTES: Typical Australian humour. Apparently. Well it’s not Barry Humphries but it is amusing. The only problem is, with the exception of Melbourne the weather is pretty consistent. Where it’s rainy, it rains all the time. Where it’s dry, it’s dry all the time ….
YEAR (APPROXIMATE): 2000s
MADE FROM: wood
MADE IN: unknown
MANUFACTURER: unknown
DIMENSIONS: 15cm x 20cm
PLACE REPRESENTED: Madrid , Spain
ITEM: Ornament
NOTES: Madrid – a black fan, dancing. Fair enough. But this trinket is not really for hanging or sitting ….I’m not sure how you display this.
YEAR (APPROXIMATE): 1980s
MADE FROM: plastic
MADE IN: unknown
MANUFACTURER: unknown
DIMENSIONS: 14cm across , 8cm high .
PLACE REPRESENTED: Ireland
ITEM: Ornament
NOTES: “Natural Irish Crafts”. Only the Irish could get away with sculpting something (here a Celtic harp) out of turf, or rather peat bog, and selling it to tourists.
YEAR (APPROXIMATE): 1980s
MADE FROM: turf
MADE IN: Ireland
MANUFACTURER: Samhain Turf
DIMENSIONS: 19cm high x 13cm wide
PLACE REPRESENTED: Byron Bay, New South Wales, Australia.
ITEM: Ornament
NOTES: A caricature of the happy go lucky surfer, board in hand. This is naff but quite charming and would do your head in if you fully embraced surfing culture’s recreational habits. Or, is that a stereotype?
Who knows how many of these have been sold.
Byron Bay is a beachside town located in the far north-eastern corner of the state of New South Wales and is a favourite destination for international backpackers.
YEAR (APPROXIMATE): 2000s
MADE FROM: steel , wood
MADE IN: unknown
MANUFACTURER: unknown
DIMENSIONS: 11.5cm high x 7cm x 7cm base.
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PLACE REPRESENTED: Nicaragua
ITEM: Ornament
NOTES: The three wise monkeys who embody the proverbial principle “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” are, here, transposed to Nicaragua. It’s not unusual for cultures to adapt the proverb to their culture by using a more familiar symbol. Buddahs, owls, people and all sorts of symbols have been used. Here, the Nicaraguans have gone for an a Native American Indian look or perhaps a Aztec look (even though the Aztecs were to the north of Nicaragua in Mexico). These double up as tea light candle holders. The ornaments are signed by Jose Gutierrez, a Nicaraguan potter from the village of San Juan de Oriente. Having said that this is a little rough and could be a knock off.
YEAR (APPROXIMATE): 2016
MADE FROM: clay
MADE IN: Nicaragua
MANUFACTURER: Jose Gutierrez
DIMENSIONS:16cm tall, 8cm wide (each)
PLACE REPRESENTED: Fiji Islands
ITEM: Ornament
NOTES: A stand up very simple wood carving of a traditional (?) Fijian beach village. Despite the handcraft in this, the slightly slapdash nature indicates these must have been churned out at a rapid pace. It’s as if the craftsman could see the boat load of tourists on the horizon.
YEAR (APPROXIMATE): 1990s
MADE FROM: wood
MADE IN: Fiji (probably)
MANUFACTURER: Handmade
DIMENSIONS: 15.5cm across x 12cm high
PLACE REPRESENTED: Seychelles
ITEM: Ornament
NOTES: A little handcrafted wooden turtle with “Seycheles” written on it’s shell. It’s not heavy enbough to be a paperweight but it is cute. The Seychelles (or the Seychelle Islands) are a 155 island country archipelago in of the coast of eastern Africa.
YEAR (APPROXIMATE): 1980s
MADE FROM: wood
MADE IN: unknown
MANUFACTURER: locally probably
DIMENSIONS: 11cm long x 11cm wide
PLACE REPRESENTED: Ireland
ITEM: Ornament
NOTES: A ornamental Irish Harp. The Irish Harp is one of the most famous of all Irish instruments. The sticker on the back reads “The history of the Irish Harp is carved into the standing stones of Celtic Ireland. Immortalised in bardic poetry and manuscripts dating back to 540AD. Island Turf Crafts have recreated the harp in turf cut from Irish boglands”. Island Turf Crafts gifts are hand crafted using 5,000 year old Irish peat from some of Europe’s oldest bog lands.
YEAR (APPROXIMATE): 2000s
MADE FROM: Peat
MADE IN: Ireland
MANUFACTURER: http://www.islandturfcrafts.com
DIMENSIONS: 18cm high x 10cm at it’s widest
PLACE REPRESENTED: Holland
ITEM: Ornamental Minature
NOTES: A beautiful detailed boat, err clog. The Dutch are famous for their clogs and their seafaring trade (if that’s what you call it) so why not combine the two? The result: the clog boat! Paint some windmills on the clog, err hull, throw in some flags and you have a perfect Dutch tourist trinket.
YEAR (APPROXIMATE): 1970s
MADE FROM: wood , paper
MADE IN: unknown
MANUFACTURER: unknown
DIMENSIONS: 12cm long x 14cm high x 5cm wide
PLACE REPRESENTED: Croatia
ITEM: Ornament
NOTES: I assume this is a sokol (falcon) which is the national bird of Croatia … or, if it isn’t, it should be. There are buildings, songs, poems, foods, folkloric groups and all sorts of other things named after it.
And, though not identified as croatian as such this was bought there, somewhere around Lovran or Rijeka I recall.
YEAR (APPROXIMATE): 1973
MADE FROM: wood
MADE IN: Yugoslavia (as it then was) (probably handmade)
MANUFACTURER: unknown
DIMENSIONS: 21cm high , 15cm long
