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
PLACE REPRESENTED: Airlie Beach, Queensland , Australia
ITEM: Wooden Ornament
NOTES: A small wooden (bamboo naturally) ornamental boat which is, Vietnamese or South East Asian in appearance despite “Airlie Beach” being printed on the paddle. Aaaahhhh, overstock.
Perhaps it was a comment on the waves (sic) of boat people who came to Australia from Vietnam in the late 1970s. It is simple but wonderfully detailed.
YEAR (APPROXIMATE): 1970s
MADE FROM: wood
MADE IN: unknown
MANUFACTURER: unknown
DIMENSIONS: 18cm long , 6cm high , 5cm wide (at its widest point)
PLACE REPRESENTED: Lovran , Croatia
ITEM: Ornamental Minature
NOTES: A ornamental minature wine barrel with traditional handpainted design from Lovran on the Istrian peninsula.
Barrels, grapes (and drinking wine) are all well loved pursuits in the region … maybe that’s why there is a heart on the barrel.
YEAR (APPROXIMATE): 1973
MADE FROM: wood
MADE IN: Croatia (then Yugoslavia)
MANUFACTURER: Handmade
DIMENSIONS: 10cm high , 10cm long
PLACE REPRESENTED: Bangladesh
ITEM: Ornament
NOTES: A ornament that is both hand crafted and machine made which shows the Bangladeshi flag at full mast, a relief of Bangladesh, and all of its 64 districts named.
This is very handy if you want to quickly find out where the, say, Barguna district is, and you don’t have the internet.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_districts_of_Bangladesh
YEAR (APPROXIMATE): 1980s
MADE FROM: wood
MADE IN: Bangladesh (probably)
MANUFACTURER: unknown
DIMENSIONS: 18.5cm across X 22.5cm high
PLACE REPRESENTED: Lovran , Croatia
ITEM: Ornament
NOTES: I’m not sure what this is. Possibly something to hold a pen or a cigarette? Either way it is in wood adorned with traditional markings you see on a lot of Croatian souvenirs of the period.
YEAR (APPROXIMATE): 1970s
MADE FROM: wood
MADE IN: Yugoslavia
MANUFACTURER: Meba, Zagreb
DIMENSIONS: 8cm high, 14cm wide, 11cm wide
PLACE REPRESENTED: Salisbury , England
ITEM: Four finger bud vase
NOTES: Nifty and slightly surreal bud vase depicting the coat of arms for Salisbury in the south of England.
Salisbury was called “New Sarum” at one stage, hence the Latin on the coat of arms.
What would I do without wikipedia?
A bud vase is a small vase which is designed to held several cut flowers, especially young flowers and buds.
What would I do without google?
YEAR (APPROXIMATE): 1930s
MADE FROM: ceramic material
MADE IN: England
MANUFACTURER: unknown (It says “British Manufacture” on the bottom but it looks very much like a Victoria ceramic piece made by Schmidt & Company (Czechoslovakia)).
DIMENSIONS: 6cm high x 6.5cm across top.
PLACE REPRESENTED: Holland
ITEM: Clog
NOTES: A wooden clog from Holland. I’ve met a few clogs from Holland. This one is personalised with “Josh” on one side and “Holland” on the other. “Josh” doesn’t sound particularly Dutch and he may be quite forgetful as he has lost this clog or, maybe, he has one leg.
YEAR (APPROXIMATE): 1970s
MADE FROM: wood
MADE IN: unknown
MANUFACTURER: unknown
DIMENSIONS: 15.5cm long , 7cm high