Knick-Knacks and Gewgaws

A final few photos from my weekend in Cornwall.

Walking around Penzance I spotted this fantastic door on an old chapel in Clarence Street. The chapel itself is abandoned and in a pretty poor state - many of the fishscale slate tiles on the roof are missing and the whole building looks uncared for. It's a tragedy really. If only I had the money. 

I also spotted this amazing handmade ferry in the window of a junkshop. I love all the individual characters on board. The price tag was flipped over and unreadable but I didn't dare ask how much it was. Besides, it was fairly big - I have no idea where I'd put it.

I also paid a visit to the Lizard-based studios of stone, metal and wood sculptor Samvado. There's a lot of his stuff that I love (and can't afford). But I couldn't resist a Dali-inspired 'melting clock' made of Yew, like the ones you can see in the second photo. 

Samvado's website is here.

And, finally, a couple of other things I brought home with me. The first is this fantastic little carved lion head. I reckon it probably once graced the arm of a chair.

I'm not sure how old it is but the style is very 17th century. I'd love to believe that it's 400 years old but I have no provenance - it was in a junk/antique/curios shop. It's not worth anything and it doesn't have any real purpose but I really liked it.

I'll post an update once I've given it a good dust and waxing.

The second item is this carved pheasant head. It was whittled by my late father sometime in the early 1980s and used to top one of his walking sticks. What I plan to do is attach a new stick and return it to everyday use (It'll be perfect for hooking over branches to shake damsons down).

These two new acquisitions join my pile of current restoration projects that also include this scythe and sickle rescued from an old farm shed belonging to a friend. I love bringing things like these back to life.

It would be a tragedy to let these things just rot away. They're fragments of living history.

So there you go - my weekend in a handful of blogposts. 

I don't get home to Cornwall as often as I'd like to. 

But whenever I do, I like to cram in as much as I can.