What unusual items do you have around the old homestead???

[BERIGAN]

I was gently cleaning this old chair, and it got me to thinking, others here I bet have some interesting stuff gathering dust.... This chair was purchased by my Great-Grandparents at the 1904 St. Louis Worlds fair. It's Chinese, that's about all I know about it. That, and that it's cool!

[Bright Moments]

[jazzbo]

I guess the most intersting (to me) items I have at home are some purchased in Ethiopia in '66 and '67 and '68: a few knives, an elegant fly whisk, a beautiful large wooden carving (a wall hanging) of a priest, a shistra, a few woven baskets. I also have an ivory arm brace that a friend of mine from boarding school in M'Babane gave me.

And in another sense of unusual I have a series of digital prints (framed) of jazz musicians that were done by musican and artist Don Van Selus (one time contibutor to the BN Board and here) that I cherish.

[makpjazz57]

The 3 people and two dogs living in the house are probably the most unusual items in the house!

Marla

[Dave James]

I have a copy of Isaac Newton's treastise, "Newton's Optics". It's a fourth edition published in 1644. The book is in pretty good condition considering it's well over 300 years old. I had it appraised several years ago at a book fair here in Portland. It's reasonably valuable, but nothing like if it was a first edition. That would have gotten me into the $30,000 range.

Up over and out.

[Aggie87]

I spent a weekend in Verdun, France in the early 80s with some buddies, and we took some metal detectors with us out into the trenches and woods. Dug up some WWI artifacts - a French cantine, one of those old wooden-handle styled hand grenades (the wood is long since gone, and the grenade itself has rusted through - no gunpowder), and a bullet or two from 1916. One of the other guys ended up with a rifle. This picture isn't mine, but shows a similar grenade body (the one on the left), a rifle, and some bullets.

I believe most of the area has been completely cleared now, and what hasn't been cleared is probably much better secured from people wanting keepsakes.

[Peter Johnson]

I have the original painting that was used for the cover of Mingus Ah Um, an abstract gouache done by Neil Fujita, then the director of A&R at Columbia. I got it at an auction in New Jersey--not sure anyone knew exactly what it was. I'll post a photograph of it later today. Probably my most prized possession.

[Brad]

I have some bullets and shrapnel my father picked up from a Spanish Civil War battlefield. We also have a huge collection of apotehcary jars and some very old clocks from the 1700s. Does that qualify?

[Randy Twizzle]

My FDR "The Man of the Hour" clock. It stopped running years ago, but it's a reminder of the days when I was a Yellow Dog Democrat

[brownie]

I spent a weekend in Verdun, France in the early 80s with some buddies, and we took some metal detectors with us out into the trenches and woods. Dug up some WWI artifacts - a French cantine, one of those old wooden-handle styled hand grenades (the wood is long since gone, and the grenade itself has rusted through - no gunpowder), and a bullet or two from 1916. One of the other guys ended up with a rifle. This picture isn't mine, but shows a similar grenade body (the one on the left), a rifle, and some bullets.

Aggie87, how did you and your friends manage to bring those artifacts home?

Taking away those type of souvenirs from the WWI battlefields was forbidden, I believe. And clearing customs with an old rifle was trouble even in the early 80s!

[Aggie87]

Brownie -

Yes, it was expressly forbidden to remove anything from the sites. However, we ran into at least 30 other groups (easily) of people wandering through the woods doing the same, while we were there. I can only imagine how much was taken by souvenir hunters over the years. We also ran across 4-5 large artillery shells that appeared to be intact, and tread very carefully around those.

As far as bringing it home, it was relatively easy to drive across the border back into Germany, where I lived, at the time. Not as easy as today, since you still had to stop at the border crossing and show passports. The items were packaged in with the rest of my belongings (furniture, clothing, personal items, etc) in a large shipment from Germany to Texas in 1983 when I returned to attend college, and not hand-carried.

I'm not sure I would attempt any of this at my age now, due to respect for history, the danger of the actual hunting around, and so forth. But when you are 16-17 years old, it was quite an adventure!

[brownie]

Well there were billions of munitions and other weapons on the Verdun battlefields, with plenty still being found these days...

As far as I am concerned, I have had enough experience with wars and got rid of all the items relating to them! And I don't miss them a bit!

[Son-of-a-Weizen]

Unusual? Hhhhm, interesting question. Well, how about a portable voting machine from St. Louis, MO? I figure that it's always a good idea to have at least one on hand -- no telling when you might get a late nite call and have to quickly swing into action and go do a little (..ahem) 'field work'.

[Son-of-a-Weizen]

....

[Aggie87]

Well there were billions of munitions and other weapons on the Verdun battlefields, with plenty still being found these days...

I don't mean to turn this into a thread about the Battle of Verdun, according to the Douaumont Ossuary's website, 26,000,000 bombs (artillery shells) were dropped at Verdun alone ("6 bombs per square meter"). That's staggering to consider! So your figure of billions is likely close to being accurate.

We now return you to Weizen's hanging chads.....

[sidewinder]

Various bits and pieces picked up years ago whilst scuba diving in the UK. An old inkwell, loads of musket shot and some brass lumps from a warship. On one dive near Plymouth I did find an incendiary shell but I put that right back before it started fizzing ( ). Also a couple of rounds of (used) WWII German and US ammo picked up near the Nijmegen landing sites (echos of Aggie..)

[Brownian Motion]

We used to have a few Sumerian clay tablets with cuneiform writing on them that my great grandfather won in a poker game. We finally donated them to the Brooklyn Museum, and found out they were 6,000 years old. (This image is from Yale's collection.)

[catesta]

....

Them bills look fake.

[Brad]

Well there were billions of munitions and other weapons on the Verdun battlefields, with plenty still being found these days...

As far as I am concerned, I have had enough experience with wars and got rid of all the items relating to them! And I don't miss them a bit!

I'm a bit of a history nut and in North Africa, there are a lot of unexploded mines left over from El Alamein when Montgomery beat Rommel. They're still quite dangerous and have in fact injured and killed unsuspecting tourists, which is why you're not allowed to walk the battlefield without an escort who knows what he's doing.

[rostasi]

A favorite.

First are the 2 intro pix - cover and inside page:

then the 3rd pic that's uploaded so you can see it full size.

Look at the second name down:

Yearbook

Rod

[7/4]

A favorite.

First are the 2 intro pix - cover and inside page:

then the 3rd pic that's uploaded so you can see it full size.

Look at the second name down:

Yearbook

Rod

Wow.

[Hot Ptah]

A favorite.

First are the 2 intro pix - cover and inside page:

then the 3rd pic that's uploaded so you can see it full size.

Look at the second name down:

Yearbook

Rod

I can't see the second name on my computer--the print is too small and blurry--can you tell us who it is?

[rostasi]

I can't see the second name on my computer--the print is too small and blurry--can you tell us who it is?

Ooops! Sorry, it's John Cage.

[Bright Moments]

http://www.atomicbox.net/dratomic/home.html

[Dmitry]

I was gently cleaning this old chair, and it got me to thinking, others here I bet have some interesting stuff gathering dust.... This chair was purchased by my Great-Grandparents at the 1904 St. Louis Worlds fair. It's Chinese, that's about all I know about it. That, and that it's cool!

Berigan, I may very well be wrong, but I don't think this chair is Chinese. The style is strongly reminiscent of the pieces produced by the RJ Horner factory in New York, ca. 1885 - early 1900s. See if you can find the factory label on the chair's bottom.