Thursday, 3 November 2011

For John (and all you inferior designers)

I've only had this stick for a few days, and I have just sold it this morning. I would have liked to have hung onto it for a while, but - well, you know - Christmas is coming.

It's quite a rare one - an unmistakably English, 1650, trumpet stick which was made at about the same time as Charles the Second initiated the Restoration by jumping on the throne of England, only a little while after the man who banned Christmas was dug up, beheaded and hanged (but not necessarily in that order).

My thoughts were that Christmas - or the run up to it - has to be a good time to sell candlesticks - even to collectors - but I will be sorry to see it slip through my fingers so quickly. Samuel Pepys was writing his diaries when this stick was first in use - think of that. Isaac Walton was still fishing in the Thames, and it was still possible to go into town and watch a traitor being hung, drawn and quartered - something that you would have to go to the Middle East to witness these days.

I am sure I will get another like it one day, but it may be some time. I'd better go and gloat over it before I send it to it's new owner.
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17 comments:

  1. John Going Gently3 November 2011 at 12:56

    I just can't.........eh....loop this noose......over one of the cottage beams......

    ReplyDelete
  2. Tom Stephenson3 November 2011 at 12:57

    C***.

    ReplyDelete
  3. John Going Gently3 November 2011 at 13:04

    "swings gently as the rope creaks"

    ReplyDelete
  4. Crow3 November 2011 at 14:17

    I love the candle stick. I love old things, but have never owned or touched something that ancient. The stories it could tell, Including this one.

    ::saves John Gray in the knick of time::

    ReplyDelete
  5. John Going Gently3 November 2011 at 14:27

    breathlessly thanks crow

    ReplyDelete
  6. Tom Stephenson3 November 2011 at 14:41

    Tom smacks Crow in the face, rushes back to the beam and strings John up again before he has a chance to draw breath, then suggests that if she wants to touch something ancient, he might have just the thing... (t.b.c.)

    ReplyDelete
  7. John Going Gently3 November 2011 at 14:44

    groans weakly....
    then........silence

    ReplyDelete
  8. Tom Stephenson3 November 2011 at 15:37

    WHAT HAVE I DONE????!!!!! (wakes up, then imagines John taking Mabel out for a pee in the middle of the night, smiles and goes back to sleep again)

    ReplyDelete
  9. John Going Gently3 November 2011 at 15:58

    meanwhile the lifeless body of mr gray lies on the floor covered in mournful animals

    ReplyDelete
  10. Tom Stephenson3 November 2011 at 16:22

    ... eating him...

    ReplyDelete
  11. John Going Gently3 November 2011 at 16:32

    ok u win

    ReplyDelete
  12. Tom Stephenson3 November 2011 at 16:59

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-409885/Dog-eats-dead-master-wife.html

    ReplyDelete
  13. Cro Magnon3 November 2011 at 22:25

    I hope this is a one act play. CURTAINS!

    If that stick was mine, Tom, it wouldn't leave the house. That's a real beauty. I'm amazed (even in these hard times; gulp) that you're selling it.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Chris3 November 2011 at 22:31

    John doing his erotic asphyxiation again?...

    ReplyDelete
  15. John Going Gently4 November 2011 at 00:57

    The daily mail?
    how very sad

    ReplyDelete
  16. The Weaver of Grass4 November 2011 at 02:12

    Having read your post this morning Tom, I shall not be going to the Middle East any time soon, in case I accidentally stumble across something nasty in the woodshed - or even in the market square. Love the candlestick though.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Iris4 November 2011 at 15:17

    Ohhhhh, "inferior designer" - that speaks to me. That's me, hehe! I am starting to get really interested in the candlestick thing. An object from around 1650 is just loaded with history. I would hug that thing tightly to my chest and not let go.

    ReplyDelete

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