PLACE REPRESENTED: Wales
ITEM: Ornament
NOTES: A rugby ball in the Welsh colours with the Welsh dragon. “Cymru” is Welsh for “Wales”. And, despite variable results on the field, rugby union is popular national sport which is seen as a symbol of Welsh identity and national consciousness…they’d be better off with Dylan Thomas and republican agitation.
YEAR (APPROXIMATE): 2000s
MADE FROM: Polyester
MADE IN: unknown
MANUFACTURER: unknown
DIMENSIONS: 16cm long x 10cm high
ISLE OF WIGHT, ENGLAND – Ornament
PLACE REPRESENTED: Isle of Wight , England
ITEM: Ornament
NOTES: Curious – a spinning wheel to pick lotto numbers, a curious elf, and a small picture of a pier on the Isle of Wight. Maybe only the locals could explain this to me.
YEAR (APPROXIMATE): 1970s
MADE FROM: wood , plastic
MADE IN: unknown
MANUFACTURER: unknown
DIMENSIONS: 11cm across , 17cm high
PLACE REPRESENTED: Mauritius
ITEM: Small Ornament
NOTES: Beautiful Mauritius.
But why does this small ornament depict the ill fated Dodo bird?
YEAR (APPROXIMATE): 1990s
MADE FROM: ceramic material
MADE IN: unknown
MANUFACTURER: Handmade
DIMENSIONS: 10cm across , 7cm high
ITEM: A Viking boat in steel.
NOTES: “Norge” equals Norway in Norwegian.
Norway and Vikings ….what else? This should have been a Viking boat in wood but it’s a nice little steel trinket that could double up as a small paperweight.
It won’t float, that’s for sure.
YEAR (APPROXIMATE): 1970s
MADE FROM: steel (pewter tin I think)
MADE IN: Norway
MANUFACTURER: unknown
DIMENSIONS: 7.5cm long x 6.5cm high
PLACE REPRESENTED: Pisa , Italy
ITEM: Ornament
NOTES: The leaning tower of Pisa is the most well known of the buildings in the piazza dei miracoli in Pisa but there are four great religious edifices: the Duomo (cathedral), the Campanile (the cathedral’s free standing bell tower), the Baptistry and the Camposanto.
Here they are captured in something 7cm long.
YEAR (APPROXIMATE): 1980s
MADE FROM: hard plastic resin
MADE IN: unknown
MANUFACTURER: unknown
DIMENSIONS: 6cm high , 7cm long
PLACE REPRESENTED: Rockhampton, Queensland , Australia
ITEM: Souvenir Boomerang Ornament
NOTES: I’m not sure if this boomerang will come back. It’s machine shopped but it is made in Australia (in Melbourne) and made from mulga wood. Mulga is a shrub or small tree native to arid outback areas. It has adapted to its environment and makes sure it captures all rain and moisture. Accordingly, sheep and cattle love it, as do bees for its flowers. Humans, also, use it as a good source of firewood as well as a wood to make implements and … boomerangs. There is a kangaroo decal at the center just in case you didn’t know where it came from. Rockhampton has been etched into the boomerang off-center, and, perhaps, as an afterthought.
YEAR (APPROXIMATE): 1960s
MADE FROM: wood
MADE IN: Australia
MANUFACTURER: Australian Mulga
DIMENSIONS: 26cm long (the boomerang) x 5cm wide at its widest
PLACE REPRESENTED: Fiji Islands
ITEM: Ornament
NOTES: This trinket is not from Bula, Indonesia nor Bula, The Phillipines. It’s from Fiji and the “bula” is not a place but a famous local expression for “hello”.
I’m not sure why “hello” is on an object in the shape of a knife though … it’s hardly inviting.
Maybe tourists feel threatened and are more likely to buy when they are confronted by a local yelling “bula” and brandishing what appears to be a dagger?
I’m sure airlines won’t let you take this in carry-on luggage.
How many of these simple tourist trinkets can a local churn out in one hour?
YEAR (APPROXIMATE): 1990s
MADE FROM: wood
MADE IN: Fiji (probably)
MANUFACTURER: Handmade
DIMENSIONS: 45cm long
PLACE REPRESENTED: Switzerland
ITEM: Decorative cow bell.
NOTES: This looks suspiciously similar to the Austrian decorative cowbell. My cynicism should be put to one side though because Switzerland and Austria are neighbours so there are bound to be similarities … in decorative cow bells at least.
The manufacturer has gone to the trouble of writing “Gruyeres” on the bell. Gruyères is in the west of Switzerland, hence the French sounding name. Of course the Swiss-German populace have a different name for the town, Greyerz.
YEAR (APPROXIMATE): 1970s
MADE FROM: steel , leather , material
MADE IN: unknown
MANUFACTURER: unknown.
DIMENSIONS: 14cm high (including strap) 6cm wide (bell)
PLACE REPRESENTED: Austria
ITEM: Decorative Cow Bell ornament.
NOTES: Austria and cow bells?
For sure.
Austria is Alpine and there is truckloads of grassland and pasture so cattle farming and dairy production are important agricultural production sectors.
There is something ye olde worlde and distinctly middle European about cow bells.
Isn’t there?
YEAR (APPROXIMATE): 1970s
MADE FROM: steel , material
MADE IN: unknown
MANUFACTURER: unknown
DIMENSIONS: 11cm top to bottom x 4.5cm across
PLACE REPRESENTED: Ghana, Africa.
ITEM: Ornament
NOTES: Beautifully detailed and carved. Large, very evocative and quite striking.
YEAR (APPROXIMATE): 1970s (but it could be earlier)
MADE FROM: wood
MADE IN: unknown
MANUFACTURER: unknown
DIMENSIONS: 25cm tall
