November 8, 2014

old, older, 'oldst' ;)

hello again my dear minifriends, I'm so glad you're here! It's pretty quiet here isn't it? But not in my head, where lots of old and new (mini)ideas are always floating around, giving a nice ring to my mind and something fun to focus on. And since a couple of weeks I can even do a little here and there and I'm hoping to finish and show some items soon, can't wait!

what I like to show you now and I'm very excited about is some old stuff; really, REALLY old. I've had them a while now and wanted to show them when I had been able to make simple displays for them, but that might take a while because I want to do the other things first, so here they are!


getting to own these great old relics got started with Pinterest where I came across something from Tony's great blog Miniature Treasures. Tony uses treasures, hence his blog name, he finds in the ground like old coins and other beautiful stuff for most of his miniatures. Which make them beyond special I think. I wouldn't want to (or could) copy what he does, but the idea of using old small relics in miniatures appealed to me.

out of curiosity and not expecting to find anything, I did a quick search for artefacts on our Dutch online marketplace, comparable to Ebay and Craigslist. To my surprise I found a seller of some great ones that wouldn't leave my mind... From a bunch of other wonderful excavated ministuff I choose the 3 I couldn't choose between, weren't too expensive and also fitted the 1:12th scale best. I asked them from my boyfriend for my birthday that was coming up. Well, sort of, it was only 6 weeks away :D. Not something I usually do, but wanted to make the exception. And lucky for me, he thought it was a great idea!

not sure if pieces such as these would be more likely to be found in a miniature museum as opposed to a miniature antique&old stuff-store, but if not: hey, that's the great thing about this mini world, we can do things the way we like!

there's just nothing like natural aging, there's no way I could distress anything like this!
the bronze 2000 year (!) old horse (3cm's or 1 and 3/16th inch) has been used as a cloak pin or a woman's stole in ancient Rome, called a fibula (yes, like the bone). Because of it's purpose it's flat on the back and has things on that back that once held the actual pin. It looks like a miniature table statue and is what I wanted it for, but statues don't have flat backs with thingies on it. After some thinking however I decided I liked it so much I didn't mind that and it would still work great as a small statue. I'm all for as realistic as possible, but sometimes I don't mind to compromise, especially not with a piece this unique and special.

I've been thinking who this was made for: maybe a little Roman girl as a gift from her parents, or maybe from a guy to his girlfriend or a husband to his wife? Or just bought by a person needing a cloak pin ;) . And would she (I'm guessing it was a she, but maybe men liked and wore horses on their clothing too) have worn it daily or just on special occasions? And I can only guess it must have been someone with money or a metalworker who could make it himself? I just can't imagine ordinairy people could afford to have a shaped fibula if at all, but maybe they did? Not so familiar with Roman times, especially not those kind of details :D


the religious kind of object is a medieval pilgrim badge of tin from around the year 1500, that I think will make a great antique wallsculpture.

the dish is a 10-12th century Byzantine dish-coin that comes from a big treasurefind in Turkey acoording to the seller. This little piece started out as money, became useless and degraded to just being soilfiller for ages. To now becoming an item to be 'sold' in my miniature Oldtique Store, how cool is that? The story to go with that might be it was used in those times as a servingdish for regionally famous chickenhearts on Sundays by the rich and wealthy? I really don't know, my knowledge of the miniature upper class Byzantine foodserving habits is not that great, but sounds like a possibility, right?


prehistoric

then I've got even older stuff to put in the Oldtiquestore-to-be that I came across online while looking for the artefacts: fossils! Two that are 65-112 million years old, and another one about less than half that age, but still a whopping 35 million years old. The fun part: they were nicely cheap (less than a euro each, probably because they're so common and the light one not being in the best shape (as compared to other same kind of fossils, that are often a lot better preserved or nicer formed). The pink shell I added for colour, it's very small for such a nice kind I think.


the oldest fossils are ammonites. These are of a prehistoric squidspecies related to our present day squid, but with the shell on the outside. The species have gone extinct around the same time the dinosaurs did.

source image: Polihierax, DeviantArt
according to Wikipedia (Dutch), ammonites are found in various sizes, ranging from less than a centimeter up to 2,5 meters! (more than 8 feet) So a great item to display as a miniature, it will always be to scale (as long as you'll never want to use one of over 20 cm's (7,87 inches) ;)

the second kind is the fossilized tooth of a ray (flatfish). Which at first I thought I could use as a 1:12th scale dinosaurtooth or something. Figuring they could be different, like this one, from teeth we know. But the teeth I can find of dinosaurs online have no ridges like the raytooth has or the shape, so I'm not sure there would have been any dinosaur with teeth resembling this one (but it was a quick online search, not a study ;) ). So I decided it to be a fossil of undetermined origine, because I really like the shape, texture and colour!


there, that was a little bit of history for ya, like it or not. But, if you got to here, you probably weren't too bored I guess :D

22 comments:

  1. Nice haul, Monique! Regarding the horse pin - some small statues do indeed have flat backs so they can be placed up against a wall. I've seen this many times with antique Staffordshire figures (especially those meant to go on a fireplace mantel).

    I'm sorry to hear you're still having health problems. I hope you get better soon.

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    1. Thanks Anna, I was very pleased myself! Ah okay, didn't know that about the small statues with flat backs. I guess they didn't have pins too, but that's a minor detail :D. I'll hopefully be better someday, I keep hoping!

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  2. The pieces are fantastic Monique. Fabulous to have something so small but even better that they have a history behind them and can be seen up close (rather than behind glass in a museum). I love things like this and they're perfect for an antique store =0)

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    1. Thanks Pepper, I like the historey (whatever it is ;)) behind them too. And you're right, better than in a museum behind glass!

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  3. Hi Monique!
    Wat een leuke post om te lezen.
    En toevallig, ik heb ook al een tijdje een paar ammonieten en andere fossielen voor in mn pph! voor een nieuw projekt wat nog lang niet klaar is dus het duurt nog even voor ik dat kan laten zien.
    Ik vind dit een coole post en je stukken erg mooi, hele goeie vondsten en ik snap dat je er enthousiast over bent! Die tand is ook mooi en als je er niet uikomt wat het is geef je er toch zelf een mysterieuze naam aan, dat is toch ook miniaturen, je fantasie de vrije loop laten :D
    Het spijt me te horen dat je zo afziet met je gezondheid; ik hoop dat je geen pijn hebt en dat het je snel beter gaat! Het is in elk geval fijn weer van je te horen/lezen,
    Groetjes,
    Gee

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    1. Dank je Gee, en wat grappig dat je ook ammonieten en fossielen hebt voor je poppenhuis, leuk zijn dat soort voorwerpen he? Ik ga het een keer zien op je blog.
      Klopt helemaal over die tand, daarom had ik ook bedacht dat ik er wel iets van zou maken. Dank je voor je lieve woorden, het komt vast goed, ooit ;) Jij ook nog het beste, ik heb erg met je meegeleefd, maar obv je eigen verzoek maar niet gereageerd, hoewel ik daar moeite mee had, maar je verzoek ook wilde respecteren.

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  4. Wonderful additions! Hope to see them inside your shop soonest.

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    1. Thanks Pavluv Pane, it's always nice to hear others like something too. I hope to see them inside my shop soon too, but this will have to be build first ;) But if things go to plan, my boyfriend is going to start that in January and at least a beginning will be made. A super simple card (and cardboard) mock up of it I'll show soon.

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  5. Alsnog (beetje laat, maar wel gemeend :)!) gelfeliciteerd met je verjaardag, Monique! Niet zo fijn om te horen dat je gezondheid jou nog steeds parten speelt.....en wél fijn dat je toch weer met miniaturen bezig bent :)!
    Fantastische vondsten heb je gedaan, ik vind het altijd fascinerend dat ze allen een eigen verhaal hebben, goh, als ze toch eens konden praten........;)!
    En uh, ik heb je hele blogpost gelezen, hoor ;)! Ik heb namelijk een paar maanden geleden ook een paar ammonieten en een haaientand gekregen, wat toevallig én leuk!
    Fijn weekend gewenst. Groetjes, Ilona

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    1. Hi Ilona, dank je wel! En ik ben erg voor beter laat dan nooit hoor, altijd welkom! Ah ja, that's life, maar die miniaturen houden mij altijd bezig hoor, hoe slecht het ook gaat en ook al kan ik er verder helemaal niets mee. Ideeen in m'n hoofd uitwerken en nieuwe dingen bedenken en daar enthousiast over zijn is juist wat me dan (figuurlijk dan) overeind houdt en ontzettend waardevol.
      Dank voor je compliment, altijd leuk als anderen iets net zo leuk vinden. Oh, ALS ze toch eens konden praten idd... hoe leuk zou dat zijn!
      Haha, netjes hoor, ut was aardig wat tekst. En wat toevallig dat je niet zo lang geleden ammonieten en een haaientand gekregen hebt, haaientanden vind ik ook erg mooi, dat was een goede cadeaugever :D

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    1. et merci aussi Claude, pour votre commentaire, toujours agréable :D

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  7. Absolutely wonderful finds! I specially love the horse but those fossils are perfect for a miniature collector!

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    1. Hi Susan, glad you like them too! That horse is great isn't it?

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  8. Unas preciosas piezas y además con su propia historia ...Una genial idea.

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    1. Gracias Isabel! La idea era así que gracias a Tony, pero estoy muy contento de haber podido encontrar en línea en estos objetos especiales.

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  9. Cool! Ja leuk om oude (zéér oude!) miniaturen te gebruiken in het poppenhuis. Dat bronzen paardje is geweldig. En die fossielen...het zit zeker in de lucht want ook ik heb een aantal maanden geleden een collectie hele kleine fossielen en bijzondere stenen gekocht. Zo bijzonder dat je iets in je hand hebt dat zó enorm oud is.

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    1. Ja he? Wat grappig/toevallig dat je ook een aantal fossielen en bijzondere hebt weten te bemachtigen, de natuur maakt geweldige miniaturen voor ons ;) En het is zeker bijzonder zulke oude dingen te hebben, al kan ik er met m'n kop niet bij hoe oud sommige dingen al zijn

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  10. Things with a history is so interesting! And these looks beautiful too! Great finds!
    Hannah

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    1. Thanks Hannah, glad you like them too, and a bit of history to an object is definately nice!

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  11. Hi Monique! Loved the research, stayed to the end :D I have some ammonites lying around waiting for their inclusion in a miniature scene :D And an Egyptian shabti replica :D The little pieces you bought are perfect, especially that horse. Any time I see these old artifacts I always wonder about the people who owned them, quite vividly, like yourself :D I hope in the future people will find some of my belongings and "think" of me, I find comfort in that :D

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    1. Hi Sarah, aka stalkergirl :D. Good for you, you brave student, to read to the end. Ammonites are perfect for miniatures aren't they? A what? An Egyptian shabti replica? Ah, just did a google imagesearch and now I know, that's great! Yes, I like it too to just wonder about a story behind something. Ah, I never thought of that though, but I guess we leave our miniatures behind and maybe future people do think of us because of them and wonder the same things we've wondered about others ;)

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