PLACE REPRESENTED: Chile
ITEM: Wall Ornament
NOTES: A nice hand crafted (partially) wall ornament from Chile, in copper, naturally enough. Copper mining was (is) one of the biggest industries in Chile.
“Recuerdo de Chile” means “A Remembrance of Chile”.
Simple, effective and stylish.
YEAR (APPROXIMATE): 1960s
MADE FROM: Copper
MADE IN: unknown (probably Chile)
MANUFACTURER: unknown
DIMENSIONS: 13cm diameter
PLACE REPRESENTED: Coastal towns, Croatia
ITEM: Display Plate
NOTES: A great wooden wall plate with clock hand depicting various towns along Croatia’s coast: Lovran, Kotor, Koper, Dubrovnik. Simple, evocative and stylish. Home is where the heart is. Decidedly old world and probably not mass produced.
YEAR (APPROXIMATE): 1960s
MADE FROM: wood
MADE IN: Yugoslavia (as it then was) (handmade, in part?)
MANUFACTURER: unknown
DIMENSIONS: 24cm
PLACE REPRESENTED: Tasmania, Australia
ITEM: Salt & Pepper Shakers
NOTES: Apples and Tasmania … a very familiar motif. Apples and salt and pepper, of course, don’t go together or do they?
YEAR (APPROXIMATE): circa 1960
MADE FROM: ceramic material
MADE IN: Australia
MANUFACTURER: Westminster Fine China
DIMENSIONS: 7cm high x 5.5cm wide
PLACE REPRESENTED: Ireland
ITEM: Trivet or Plate place mats.
NOTES: Beautiful plate place mats (they are not big enough for plate and cutlery), trivet or pot stands depicting Ireland in all it’s 1960s beauty.
Was Ireland ever like this? Of course it was and is … you just have to look a little harder sometimes.
Made in England though!
YEAR (APPROXIMATE): 1960s
MADE FROM: wood, cork, material
MADE IN: England
MANUFACTURER: Win-El-Ware
DIMENSIONS: 15cm x 15cm (each)
PLACE REPRESENTED: Gold Coast (specifically Surfers Paradise), Queensland , Australia
ITEM: Salt & Pepper Shakers
NOTES: Handled salt and pepper shakers in fake bone with a fair bit of detail.
Perfect kitsch. Much like Surfers Paradise itself, perhaps?
YEAR (APPROXIMATE): 1960s
MADE FROM: plastic , steel
MADE IN: unknown
MANUFACTURER: unknown
DIMENSIONS: 14cm long , 6cm high each
PLACE REPRESENTED: Büsum , Germany
ITEM: Wall Ornament
NOTES: Büsum is a small town on the North Sea coast of Germany. Fishing is big … which is explains Saint Clement, patron saint of sailors and fishermen, with an anchor. Domestic tourism, to its health spa, is important also. It gained official Nordseebad (North Sea spa) status in 1837.
YEAR (APPROXIMATE): 1960s
MADE FROM: wood
MADE IN: unknown
MANUFACTURER: unknown
DIMENSIONS: 18cm diameter
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: Konstanz , Germany
ITEM: Display Plate
NOTES: Konstanz is located at the western end of Lake Constance (Konstanz – get it?), on the river Rhine, in the south-west corner of Germany, bordering Switzerland. This plate is rustic and but simple art from the 60s. Well the plate certainly dates pre 1993 where one of the small towers to the harbour entrance (as seen in center of the plate) was replaced by the controversial statue Imperia by sculptor Peter Lenk.
YEAR (APPROXIMATE): 1960s
MADE FROM: wood
MADE IN: Germany (probably)
MANUFACTURER: unknown
DIMENSIONS: 18cm diameter
PLACE REPRESENTED: Roebuck Bay, Western Australia , Australia
ITEM: Tray
NOTES: Now this is remote.
A serving tray depicting native Australians in traditional gear striking a (John) Fordian pose for a “Coastal Scene, Roebuck Bay, Near Broome, N.W. W.A”.
Broome is situated on the traditional lands of the Yawuru people.
YEAR (APPROXIMATE): 1960s (or 1950s)
MADE FROM: steel
MADE IN: Australia
MANUFACTURER: Willow
DIMENSIONS: 44.5cm x 32cm
PLACE REPRESENTED: Cooma, New South Wales , Australia
ITEM: ornament
NOTES: A wooden statuette of a boat. This is a beautifully detailed travel trinket where the sails even move! But the trinket seems to have been made from left overs from other souvenirs. The boats hull is a Dutch clog (confirmed by the windmill depictions), the sails seem to resemble that of Spanish galleons, the flag on the main mast (I talk the salty sea dog talk) is Dutch and there is a little sticker that says Cooma, NSW.
Waste not , want not, huh?
Cooma is no where near the coast either so I’m not sure about the whole boat choice.
As far as I know neither the Dutch nor the Spanish colonised Cooma, but I wouldn’t put it past them.
Cooma, though, did become the headquarters of the Snowy Mountains Scheme (a hydroelectricity , irrigation, and dam complex that is the largest engineering project ever undertaken in Australia taking some 25 years to complete) during the 1950s and 1960s. The employment of workers was from 32 (mostly European) countries so, perhaps, this explains the cultural potpourri of this trinket.
YEAR (APPROXIMATE): 1960s
MADE FROM: wood
MADE IN: unknown
MANUFACTURER: unknown
DIMENSIONS: 15cm high , 6cm long
