the walker library

A clutch of fossilized dinosaur eggs

A field surgeon’s kit from the American Civil War

A first edition Encyclopedia Britannica, published in 1768

A French map from 1692 that depicts California as an island

A full skeleton of a juvenile raptor (about the size of a cat) - 45 million years old

A globe of the Moon signed by 10 of the 12 astronauts to have walked on its surface

An Egyptian wooden sarcophagus (approx. 1800 BC)

An original backup of the first artificial space satellite, Sputnik

First image of the eye of a fly through a microscope, published in Hooke’s Micrographia (circa 1666)

Flag flown to the Moon and back on Apollo 11

Hand-painted illustration of Noah’s Ark from the Nuremburg Chronicles, the first illustrated history book (circa 1493)

I've written about The Walker Library before, but l am so envious of the contents, that l am going to do so again.  If l was a multi millionaire, the contents feature the sort of stuff l would collect, and l also love the way it is displayed. I'm pissed off l don't live near its location in Stamford, Connecticut, as l would love to visit the place (school trips are welcome), but they would have to frisk me properly, otherwise some of the items might be leaving with me attached to my jam covered sticky fingers. As far as l am aware, this is the resulting accumulation fired by Jay Walker's imagination, curiosity (and money). If l still had a cat, l would go and boot it in frustration.
More about the library and it's contents here.

toodle pip

my alternate future

Further to yesterdays post,  if l can just keep things reigned in and organised, the future could be more like the above (but with better albums in the picture frames).
Here's hoping!

toodle pip

my future is staring me in the face

Oh oh!!  Left to my own devices at home, l can see where l am heading.  These pictures are not from my house, but it's only a matter of time......
The thing is, l'd love to have a root amongst those records, but l know l'd want to bring a load back if l did.

toodle pip

the vivian maier story

There was a great BBC Imagine documentary on the other night about Vivian Maier, the loner nanny who took thousands of photographs, mostly street scenes from around the Chicago area.
The photography itself was really high quality, but of course the most fascinating part of the story was that she kept the photographs to herself, and was so driven in her need to take them, expressing herself and capturing her own (and her surroundings) history.  I have always had a great admiration for anyone who just does their own thing, not caring what others think (hence my love of Keef), so this was right up my street.
Since her death in 2009, there has been a huge demand for her prints and originals, plus gallery displays and coffee table books, but you would like to think that she would still have had some success if her work had been unearthed earlier.  Now that she has ceased to be (as The Pythons would say), she will always be the elusive loner character, and her worth will probably only increase, as her cult following grows.
Maier kept her photography work in various storage containers, which was then bought unseen when she could not meet her storage bills, with the consequence that it was divided up among  innocents, collectors, and get rich quick charlatans.
Some of the images and information can be found here and here, and the BBC doc is here.
I may post some of her street photography at a later date, as l particularly like the ones with billboard or theater writing in the background, but for the meantime, above are some of her self portraits.
How very reflective.

toodle pip

the teapottery at leyburn

While out and about with the FPO last week, we ended up visiting The Teapottery, just outside Leyburn (North Yorkshire).  There was plenty of interesting looking tea pots inside (as you would expect), but there was always the dreaded thought that you might accidentally knock one off the shelves, as a sign states that all damages have to be paid for (and they are not cheap).
I prefered the odd looking ones or the rock and roll related ones (no surprise there), but despite my collecting bug, novelty teapots are something l can live without.

toodle pip

mad magazine

I don't think l have bought a new Mad Magazine for a few years, but once upon a time, l was an avid reader and collector, and still have a load of them stashed away.  The humour was obviously geared towards American tastes, but some of the writing was razor sharp, contemporary, ironic and sarcastic. I also loved some of the cartoons, especially the Don Martin and Mort Drucker ones.  Here's some of the better covers from the recent (and not so recent) past.  Like a pub that l no longer visit, l'll miss it when it ceases to exist (apart from in my memories).

toodle pip

american bomber pilots decorated jackets

There's a a great article in Collectors Weekly (I'm a sad old git) about the way American World War Two (and later) pilots and crew used to decorate their leather jackets, which have since become collectible items. As it states in the article, most of the men were still pretty young, did not expect to live long, and reverted back to the iconic images of their not so long distant youths for their designs.  The commanders tolerated this as it was a way for the men to cope with the huge amounts of stress that they must have been under.
The item at the bottom is known as a blood chit, and was sewn inside of the jackets, to be used as an extra pocket, but more importantly, it has the message in Chinese that there will be a reward if the person the jacket belongs to is assisted to safety.  Once again, people had it tough in the old days.

toodle pip