d.Sharp Journal

Behold - Gravestones

I like my vintage cast iron S & P shakers.

May they rest in peace.

Behold - sterling companion

Let’s go—much as that dog goes,
intently haphazard....
—dancing
edgeways, there’s nothing
the dog disdains on his way,
nevertheless he
keeps moving, changing
pace and approach but
not direction—‘every step an arrival’.

Denise Levertov - Overland to the Islands.




I love this little silver dog. It is nice to have things from people whom you miss.

Do you have a special little something that reminds you of someone?

Behold - paper hatchet

This paper hatchet candy container was used to celebrate Washington's birthday/President's Day, I have also seen little tree stump containers with teenie tiny hatchets.

I find most vintage holiday things very charming. I love that every holiday seems to have been celebrated back in the day, taken as an opportunity to gift a small token of your affection to those you care about. {and eat sweets!} And geez, here I am showing you this 4 whole days after President's Day. I would have never cut it back then.

Behold - Anatomy

I found this anatomy chart about 15 years ago, after we moved back to Portland. Although it isn't in the best condition, I love it - besides it was crazy cheap. I found it at a big rummage sale and made a point of going back to that sale annually, each time finding at least one thing that really made my heart patter, until it became overpriced and kind of ordinary. {I am talking to you Catlin Gabel}

I especially like the detail.

We have it hanging in our kitchen since we have very few large walls without windows or paneling. When M was little he started to learn some of the anatomical names.  I asked C what some of the things on the chart were, this was his object association:

 

It cracked me up when he said "Macaron" - we have obviously been here before. Perhaps we are what we eat.

Behold - King of the Jungle.

The painting is on an aged wooden panel, and the paint is some kind of super thick glossy house paint.

Some girlfriends and I had a big yard sale together a while back. It kind of defeats the purpose of  'purging' if you end up buying things from your friends { and they end up buying from you - it is more like swapping than selling}. That is how I ended up with this lion painting. I think he is pretty fetching; a folk art, Alexander Girard-ish king of the jungle that brightens up C's room.

Behold - little devil

Happy Halloween!

This devil is for tallying the current bid in a game of Bridge. He is made of celluloid/french ivory and the tail and arm act as movable pointers.  I don't play Bridge or many other card games {except, perhaps, Go Fish}, so he keeps my husband's hot sauce collection company.

Behold - eyes

 People often tell me that I am a hard person to shop for. But, you know, just a jar of antique handblown glass doll eyes and I'm good.

Behold - The Three Bears

Okay, don't laugh. I can't help myself when I see stuff like this.

Although a few friends have thought they are creepy - surely the hypno-eyes would cause the kids to need therapy - I  find them hilarious. Especially because they are made from dish soap bottles, that is where Papa Bear got his broad shoulders. The kind lady I bought them from {a buck each} made them in the late 60's for her kids.

Behold - Globes

 One day, as a little psuedo gutter punk Morrissey wannabe teenager, I was sitting downtown with some friends and this man walked through the square holding an enormous globe {as there was a globe store beneath the courtyard} and we all spontaneously serenaded the gentlemen with "He's got the whole world in his hands". The volume of our singing, the fact that we only knew pretty much that line, and the general good looks of our motley bunch perhaps had something to do with his quickened pace. We laughed.... then lit up a clove. Oh, the eighties.

The silver globe is the first one that I bought and is still my favorite. I nabbed it at an estate sale super cheap about 13 years ago. I have only seen one other silver globe since then, on Ebay {but I'm not looking.} Geez, you think I would have dusted it better for the photograph.

One globe was fine for a while, but then like most who collect, they spawned. Here are a few others that I think are neat.

The small tin globe on the left is one of the older ones we have, dating before WW1. One interesting thing about dating globes is finding out what countries existed {that are no longer} or were named during a certain time period. The globe behind it is vintage French. The one on the right is unique because it is all cardboard, even the faux-wood stand. The cardboard piece on the top is used to measure airplane travel.

This globe below is kind of funked out, but I love the cast iron rings that rotate around it - they show, along with the pointer on the base, the solar and lunar cycles according to season and even month of the year.

Behold - Vitalogy

Medical books are a self-diagnosed weakness of mine. This is one of my favorites. It may look familiar, I picked up this 1910 edition at a doctor's estate sale a few years after this came out, whose packaging and booklet was reproduced from a 1920's edition.

Many vintage medical encyclopedias have fold out 'manikins' {as Vitalogy describes them} - these four layers display the brain and neck muscles, the center of the head, the arteries and veins and the principles of Phrenology.

Another manikin, this one a favorite, it keeps opening like a book.

Vitalogy also makes for interesting reading, take this for example:

"Young man, if you want your wife to be as attractive in your sight and as loving toward you after marriage as  before, see to it that you occupy SEPARATE APARTMENTS most of the time."

An illustration demonstrates the physical response from a snake bite. Another warns us of  ' The Greatest Destroyer Of Health, Life And Beauty In The Civilized World ..... The Waist Belt'.

{Oh, how I wish that was the worst of our problems.}