Posts tagged "antiques"

September 26, 2010

Just two recent findings from Spitalfields Market. 

Yes, those are doll-sized ice skates and yes, that’s an original Cyprane® inhaler. 

. cyprane inhaler antiques photography spitalfields whitechapel doll ice skates
August 19, 2010

Today’s Spitalfields was particularly nice because I had the lovely Aiko273 coming along with me. I’m pleased she gave the leg brace I was umming and ahhing about for weeks a nice home.

Some of today’s finds include a book of sweet bedtime stories for the whole family written by everyone’s favourite children’s book author, Hermann Göring. It includes jolly chapters such as “Finis Germaniae?”, “The Tactics of Legality”, “My Task: The Wiping Out of Marxism and Communism” as well as “Aviation”. A fine read. :)

I also got very useful Red Cross bands, a very truthful shop sign and a tiny head for some obscure reason. 

“Anatomy of the Eye and Orbit” will go to our Great Lord Substrom, I imagine. 

. spitalfields whitechapel antiques hermann göring books red cross head substrom aiko273 london
July 1, 2010

A small part of today’s Spitalfields finds. I particularly like my Perspex Jesus®. He’s more 80s and arty than thou cause his crucifix is made of perspex and yours isn’t. Amen. Also, Dave Gahan and I are currently writing him his very own theme tune, yo.

Not pictured is one of the VILEST purchases I’ve ever made: A porcelain figurine of a child mermaid looking dangerously constipated. Its gruesome stare destroyed the camera so you just have to trust me that it’s so horrific you really don’t want to see it. 

. antiques bw crucifix doll jesus london perspex photography porcelain spitalfields skull
June 17, 2010
Shocking! I completely forgot to bore you all with my Spitalfields update last week. So here’s two weeks worth of exploits (I’m on a strict budget…): - Mechanical monkey of doom - Two very beautiful newbies in the doll family (I lovingly call the head “Pol Pot Jr.”) - An always useful hand clip - A “pot” box to go with my “snuff” box. YAY!

Shocking! I completely forgot to bore you all with my Spitalfields update last week. So here’s two weeks worth of exploits (I’m on a strict budget…):

- Mechanical monkey of doom

- Two very beautiful newbies in the doll family (I lovingly call the head “Pol Pot Jr.”)

- An always useful hand clip

- A “pot” box to go with my “snuff” box.

YAY!

. spitalfields antiques london whitechapel mechanic monkey doll doll head clip hand pot
June 4, 2010

Busy times here at Wurzeltod HQ. Following the correlative rules of the Teutonic laws of multi-disciplinary hyperefficiency, I decided to go for changes on all fronts, in housing, career and relationship because if I’m heading for a nervous breakdown it’d better come now and with a certain degree of gravitas and heroism. 

Anyhow, so it seems I totally forgot to go to Spitalfields yesterday, so here are (some of) the findings from the previous week: 

- Carved Black Foresty stag head shelf

- Broken and burnt doll’s head with intact eye mechanism (woohoo!)

- Pearlware/creamware plate from around 1810, I reckon (it has the characteristic blueish/greyish shine, so I’m confident it’s pearlware)

- Barr, Flight & Barr plate from pre-1840, I presume, because it seems they stopped production under those initials afterwards, but I know next to nothing about ceramics, so please do enlighten me if I’m wrong. At any rate, it would make my dear friend Ernst Haeckel proud. :)

. spitalfields interna wurzeltod antiques whitechapel london plates doll ceramics black forest stag wood
May 20, 2010
Spitalfields Treasures, May 20, 2010:  It’s obvious that the doll and/or the chaps in the painting will try to kill me each and every night from now on, but the hell with it - it was all worth it! :)  Photo © Wurzeltod, 2010

Spitalfields Treasures, May 20, 2010: 

It’s obvious that the doll and/or the chaps in the painting will try to kill me each and every night from now on, but the hell with it - it was all worth it! :) 

Photo © Wurzeltod, 2010

. spitalfields whitechapel antiques london market doll children creepy wurzeltod
May 13, 2010
Just a new addition to the doll family (2nd in middle row from left). She looks like that supernaturally beautiful girl in your primary school class who always sat there all mysteriously silent and heartbreakingly gorgeous and when you realised that she’s really just completely vapid and apathetic you spent your sleepless nights trying to convince yourself that her apparent vapidness is really just a guise to cover up some eternal wisdom and esoteric insight into the secrets of the universe, but no, she was really just damn stupid and it hit you again how very painful beauty mixed with stupidity is to the empathetic mind.Other items this week: Wooden ceremonial rosary that goes down to my thighs (Yes! Of course I’m planning to wear it and make people kiss it!) and a 1908 issue of M. M. Taylor’s “Hand Book of Craft Freemasonary Including Installation of Master and Investiture of Officers” which is always useful. 

Just a new addition to the doll family (2nd in middle row from left). She looks like that supernaturally beautiful girl in your primary school class who always sat there all mysteriously silent and heartbreakingly gorgeous and when you realised that she’s really just completely vapid and apathetic you spent your sleepless nights trying to convince yourself that her apparent vapidness is really just a guise to cover up some eternal wisdom and esoteric insight into the secrets of the universe, but no, she was really just damn stupid and it hit you again how very painful beauty mixed with stupidity is to the empathetic mind.

Other items this week: Wooden ceremonial rosary that goes down to my thighs (Yes! Of course I’m planning to wear it and make people kiss it!) and a 1908 issue of M. M. Taylor’s “Hand Book of Craft Freemasonary Including Installation of Master and Investiture of Officers” which is always useful. 

. spitalfields antiques dolls whitechapel london nun masonic freemasonry rosary crucifix
May 6, 2010
After a near-fatal crash with the RESPECT party double decker this morning, I knew that things could only get better.  And they did.  Spitalfields was sweet and I managed to get a baby companion for my phrenology head, my own fancy copy of the Little Red Book (incl. original bag and Mao stamp!), 5 meters of super kitschy floral material and an ambulance truck. For emergencies, you know. All for less than half of my weekly antiques budget.  I then headed off to Soho to bump into Willy “Wonka” George Harcourt-Cooze who didn’t have any chocolate on him which was a bit disappointing so I decided to go and stab Stuart Pearson Wright in the thigh for a while until he signed my Riflemaker book. And if you people vote properly, this could actually end up being a bloody nice day. :)

After a near-fatal crash with the RESPECT party double decker this morning, I knew that things could only get better. 

And they did. 

Spitalfields was sweet and I managed to get a baby companion for my phrenology head, my own fancy copy of the Little Red Book (incl. original bag and Mao stamp!), 5 meters of super kitschy floral material and an ambulance truck. For emergencies, you know. All for less than half of my weekly antiques budget. 

I then headed off to Soho to bump into Willy “Wonka” George Harcourt-Cooze who didn’t have any chocolate on him which was a bit disappointing so I decided to go and stab Stuart Pearson Wright in the thigh for a while until he signed my Riflemaker book.

And if you people vote properly, this could actually end up being a bloody nice day. :)

. Stuart Pearson Wright spitalfields whitechapel london antiques Willie George Harcourt-Cooze riflemaker exhibition elections mao communism little red book phrenology red cross truck ambulance
April 29, 2010
Eyeless dolls’ heads, Victorian lace and Hitler satire. I give Spitifields a 10/10 today. 

Eyeless dolls’ heads, Victorian lace and Hitler satire. I give Spitifields a 10/10 today. 

. spitalfields london antiques whitechapel dolls hitler satire blunderland lace porcelain
April 22, 2010

Oh, SpitiFields! You do spoil me. First I get to meet the absolutely lovely and wonderfully creative Viveka Goyanes of AmoelBarroco fame and fortune and then, you give me a new Chinese friend.

Say hello to Mr. Ann Ato Mee. Yes, you can indeed take his brains out, but I must say I rather like his collectivised zen Mao smile. 

Artwork in the background is a gift by the very generous and talented Chris Conn Askew, btw.  

. wurzeltod anatomy london antiques spitalfields amoelbarroco viveka goyanes chris conn askew
December 3, 2009
foxesinbreeches: (via oxblood) Perfect Interior of the Day XIX: I almost bought a bloated Victorian frog in the exact same position as the one above at Spitalfields today, but it had this really scary expression of immanent explosion on its blown-up face so I passed and went for a haunted 3-faced doll’s head instead. P.S.: If you ever find yourself in the beautiful little village of Estavayer-le-Lac in the French part of Helvetia for some obscure reason, go see the Musée des Grenouilles. You won’t regret it.

foxesinbreeches:

(via oxblood)

Perfect Interior of the Day XIX:

I almost bought a bloated Victorian frog in the exact same position as the one above at Spitalfields today, but it had this really scary expression of immanent explosion on its blown-up face so I passed and went for a haunted 3-faced doll’s head instead.

P.S.: If you ever find yourself in the beautiful little village of Estavayer-le-Lac in the French part of Helvetia for some obscure reason, go see the Musée des Grenouilles. You won’t regret it.

. frog perfect interior photography collage taxidermy antiques spitalfields
November 28, 2009

No, I Won’t Give Up On The Diffuse Glow Just Yet by Wurzeltod® - medical The Knot fracture scarf and the starched Edwarding ruff worn the wrong way around are a small part of Thursday’s Spitalfields exploits.

. self-portrait suzanne gerber susanne gerber wurzeltod white photography spitalfields antiques london fracture scarf ruff
November 19, 2009

I’m obviously biased, but I think today’s SpitFields was a great success considering the fact that beautiful Greta is gracing my flat now.

She stands 44 cm tall, has a hand-painted porcelain head (with teeth, yay!), bust and hands and her wire dress is made from the most irreally thin brocade, tulle and silk with hand-stitched sequin and pearl ornaments.

Hair might be human, not entirely sure.

Glory.

Photos © Wurzeltod

. interna photography doll greta porcelain london spitalfields antiques market
November 12, 2009
I couldn’t really let the weekly SpitFields pass as it has become some kind of a tradition and I have established good relationships with many sellers so instead of bring back a lot of old smelly junk, I decided to take the wise, grown up path and left a deposit on a future purchase (see very bad phone picture above). She’s creepily gorgeous, you just have to trust me on this (and try to ignore the ugly 80s leather jacket in the background) until I get to photograph her properly next Thursday.

I couldn’t really let the weekly SpitFields pass as it has become some kind of a tradition and I have established good relationships with many sellers so instead of bring back a lot of old smelly junk, I decided to take the wise, grown up path and left a deposit on a future purchase (see very bad phone picture above).

She’s creepily gorgeous, you just have to trust me on this (and try to ignore the ugly 80s leather jacket in the background) until I get to photograph her properly next Thursday.

. interna doll spitalfields london antiques market
November 6, 2009

I also got two old medical books (First Aid to the Injured from 1917 and the hilariously entitled Household Surgery from 1847). The latter containing very useful DIY instructions for blood letting, leeching, cupping and happy household dentistry.

There’s also a great and highly poetically written chapter on adder, viper and rattle-snake bites. Something that happens to me ALL the bloody time.

The second photograph is from the Dislocations chapter and I really have no idea why the patient has a massive erection, but I guess it illustrates that surgery can be wholesome fun for the entire family!

In other most useful news, rotten bird heads make great bookmarks.

. spitalfields market antiques books medical first Aid to the Injured Household Surgery interna