Posted 7 months ago
blunderbuss2
(83 items)
Long gone Col. friend gave me these ivory dice with neat carrier. he got them off of a German soldier. Kept them for decades & still use them with my backgammon board.
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Fashion
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The Killer Mobile Device for Victorian Women
Adrift in a sea of digital apps for every imaginable function, we often feel our needs are met better today than in any previous era. But consider the chatelaine, a device popularized in the 18th century that attached to the waist of a wo…
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If These Shirts Could Talk: The Tantalizing Tales Behind Used Clothes
The mysterious packages kept arriving, some from eBay, others from the Home …
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Design
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Gloriously Grotesque 19th-Century Pipes
The meerschaum pipes carved in Eastern Europe at the end of the 19th century are among the most bizarre and improbable concoctions in decorative art. Some feature …
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In the Hot Seat: Is Your Antique Windsor a Fake?
While researching her book, "Killer Stuff and Tons of Money," Maureen Stanton came across all sorts of characters. For years, she shadowed her antiques-dealer friend …
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Machines
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Bizarro Beauty Products, from 1889 to Now
We tend to think of the union of vanity and technology as a particularly modern affliction. It's only recently that science brought the world botox and collagen injections, skin peels, liposucti…
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Love at First Kite: How Pizza and Pente Led to One Oklahoman's High-Flying Obsession
Vintage kites from all over the world hang from the ceiling and walls of Richard Dermer’s popula…
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Culture
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Pin-Up Queens: Three Female Artists Who Shaped the American Dream Girl
It’s easy to think of pin-up art as a charming relic of the old boys’ club—images that might line the walls …
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Say Ahhh: An Oral Surgeon's Quest to Reimagine the Garage-Band Guitar
It’s not unusual for men of a certain age to have a soft spot in their hearts for the look of vintage guitars and the sound…
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Collectibles
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Tokens for Sweethearts, in Times of War
A keepsake, an item that recognizes a loved one, strikes a deep, sentimental chord in each of us—particularly that of a sweetheart. The popularity of keepsakes grew in the United States during the period from 1917 to 1919 as our country ent…
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American Picker Dream, Part I: Mike Wolfe On His Love Affair With Bikes
I was walking to school one day and saw all these bikes in the garbage. I was just amazed because I didn't have one and I found it incredible that anyone was throwing them out. So I gathered…
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Backgammon SetsThe roots of backgammon date to 3000 BCE, when well-born Mesopotamians woul…
Military and WartimeMilitary and wartime antiques and memorabilia includes an enormously wide v…
Love the ? pokerwork engraving on the backgammon board box top! Whats the age ? 18th C. ? Local Carib?
Merci! Actually, I made the board except the hinges. The leather scene is from an 18th cent. print of the roadsted in St. Eustatius where I lived at the time. This is salvaged after hurricane Hugo (back when) hit. It was a really nice board before that. The reverse says "PROFESSIONAL TOURIST" (a palm tree) & "ASSOCIATION" which i formed in Jamaica in the 80's. The latch is a brass copy of the Luger shoulder stock latch. Also has hidden features I don't need anymore.
A bloody nice object...what a history!
Can I ask a question? "Roadsted" refers to the harbour? The 'sted' can mean place in Norwegian. Is it a safe place, a deep harbour? The Quill looks amazing!
http://www.wordnik.com/words/roadsted
Nice work!
vetra--, you did your homework I see. As you know, the island is dutch. Believe in Eng. it would be roadstead. Actually the bottom there in "Statia" is sand & drops off rather quickly so not very good for anchours. The early dutch built dikes away from the shore, filled in & built their warehouses etc.. That way the ships could come up to the quays to load & unload. Said to be the richest spot on the planet in the 18th cent.. Surrendered 22 times without firing a shot so for centuries inhabitants thought their flag was all white.
Yes, the Quill is an interesting place. A beautiful classical volcanic cone shape.
Kevin, acey deucey is for people who rely on luck, not strategy.
VERY BEAUTIFUL :) AND STUNNING SET:)
NOTE: I made the "stones" from limbs from the same red cedar tree. Strange how the wood in 1 branch was red with white streak & the red branch had a streak of white. Nature!
awesome blunderbuss2 :) very very beautiful job:)
Thanks Sean, but you should have seen it before it was found in a puddle of water after hurricane Hugo. It also has secret compartments to hold 60 $100 bills & mechanism for a single shot .22 under the latch. Never got around to installing barrel & chamber though. 1 ebony strip is the trigger spring. May just finish that. I've lived thru a lot of dangerous times in places.
your very welcome blunderbuss2:) you just did a stunning job on this . i love the fact that its "STUNNING AND DANGEROUS:) it has everything is very cool and thankyou for sharing this blunderbuss:)
BELLIN, they are just dice & only dangerous to you pocketbook.
Lucas, I hope you don't take offense at this; but with your intriguing past and hinted knowledge of dangerous parts and times, there is more than just a hint of Ernest Hemingway about you...you even look a bit like him. He has always fascinated me (I think his writing is so-so), have you ever thought of writing your autobiography. I feel it would make excellent reading! :)
That's funny Steve, especially as a girl once called me "the Hemingway of Alabama".
Actually, I was making notes for years until it struck me that I was traveling around with "evidence" that could be turned around to hurt me. A writer contacted me & we made a deal so I gave him my notes. The question was if to go fact or fiction & I agreed to go factual as it would draw more money. Of course I couldn't give him a solid address & after an escapade his address etc. was lost so guess only a few will know my history when I kick-off. Tell people if anybody bothers to put up a marker, to have it read, "Others dreamed, he did it".
You've probably done stuff I haven't even dreamed of. lol
As the saying goes "You people wouldn't believe the things I've seen...........all these things lost like tears in the rain.....
Steve
Write the book....FACTUAL!
Steve, you're an artist & so am I. I paint in shades of grey.
need another ghost writer!
Chiaroscuro rules!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Not familiar with chiarosure rules. I go by the established international rules. Steve, I walking wounded right now & have to crash! Demande.
Love #18 Hems.