Sunday, February 22, 2009

Eight Mystery Desk Objects


I was busily working away on the puter this morning (actually, emailing Alan in Florida) when I realized that many of the things on my desk were somewhat mystery objects - unless given the official guided tour.

So I'm now wondering how many of them you'd recognize - without the tour?









Using the number codes ...


... and just to confirm your intuitions and identifications, here're the annotations:

(1) a sterling silver match box, c1880 - you strike matches on the little ridges on the bottom

(2) three cast bronze antique weights, in the shapes of mythical animals - from Laos

(3) a tuppenny piece, the biggest coin I've ever seen - British, 1792

(4) silver figures of gods, sewn onto a woman's head-dress - from Dali, South West China

(5) a tiny old silver cup for drinking spirits - from Kunming, South West China

(6) antique silver buttons - from Vietnam

(7) an old wooden carving - from a window frame, Kathmandu, Nepal

(8) an early C20 silver and brass letter opener - a Japanese novelty item

How did you go?

Remember someone once said 'Honesty is the best policy' (I wonder who that was?)

10 comments:

  1. One Who Lived To Regret It.February 22, 2009 at 9:10 AM

    I only guessed the match box. But it's quite a collection of interesting things.

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  2. One Who Lived To Regret It.February 22, 2009 at 9:25 AM

    I don't know from whom the honesty quote originated, but one I like even better is Mark Twain's famous..."Always tell the truth. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest."

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  3. hey josh

    BTW the first object is a pair of eyes i got in nepal - they are attached to statues of Buddhas - and gives then a very startling appearance

    and thanks for the mark twain quote - i love it

    my grandfather saw twain on a book-reading tour he gave here in perhaps the 10's or 20's - he was a surgeon and twain was the only person he went to see.

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  4. In colonial America, to tupp, or tupping meant fuck, or fucking. Does that have anything to do with that Pommy two-pence coin?

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  5. Tupping sounds awfully similar to the more modern topping. Perhaps love for sale was available for a tuppence from street urchins.

    So tell me - if you use a cat-o-nine tails on the guy penetrating you is that considered "whipped topping"?

    Alan down in Florida

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  6. hey alan

    i'm sure this is an C18 secret society we've stumbled across - now we just have to crack their codes

    the coins were also referred to as 'tuppenny cartwheels' - can we work this into our S & M scenario?

    maybe as the whipper, you were first required to do a series of cartwheels - just to show you had the energy for that good and satisfying whipping?

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  7. One Who Lived To Regret It.February 24, 2009 at 3:27 PM

    Twain was in Australia in 1895-1896.

    have to share this with you... the validation "word" for this comment is LONSFRAG... isn't that Danish for solitary masturbation?

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  8. hey josh

    my grandfather died in the 60's and so must have heard twain much earlier than i thought - as a boy - maybe taken by his parents - given the subject matter of twain's work, this seems quite likely. thanks for clue-ing me in

    LOL re- lonsfrag - like self defrag!

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  9. One Who Lived To Regret It.February 25, 2009 at 5:19 PM

    Ah...this comment made it. I posted one for the little penis faces and also a really involved one for the two-dudes-fucking questions you asked. So those other two got censored or something?

    ReplyDelete
  10. hey josh

    i seem to be surrounded by mystery objects - hard not to foist a few on you guys - just for the heck of it!

    take care

    nick

    ReplyDelete