SOCUS LOCUS

Saturday, January 24, 2009

New category: Trees

Person in Tree, Polaroid Collection of AG

Thanks to all who have so patiently waited for me to get back in the saddle! To inaugurate the occasion, I have chosen a new category for which to solicit contributions - Trees. I found this one at the Garage among a trove of good ones that I will slowly be posting. I chose it because I love silhouetted branches, and didn't even notice the person posing for the photo in the crook of the limbs until I got home and was studying each photo carefully.

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Back on the scene!

c.1900 School Biology Composition Book Drawing collection Jim Linderman

Still too many pots boiling, but I have renewed energy for the internet. I found a trove of good photos at the flea market and, while short a compatible scanner at home to add them, I have received a great submission from J. of http://dulltooldimbulb.blogspot.com , as seen above. His blog is well worth the visit - take a look for yourself.

Any new ideas for categories? I have plenty of ideas but welcome your thoughts.

Sunday, April 27, 2008

I found this photo about a year after the matching bird photo posted earlier! It could well have been in the same dealer's unorganized collection but the reunion was still wondrous.

Above: courtesy of Louise Despont.

Sylvia's Drawing

Courtesy of Stacy Renee Morrison; drawing by Sylvia DeWolf Ostrander.

Swapatorium

Angelica of Swapatorium has introduced me to her world, and what a world it is! She's an accomplished hunter and quite generously shares her trophies. Take a look!

She has contributed the handsome snapshot of Clyde and friend above. Reminds me of Alex.

Apologies for my inattention, dear friends!

The flu & laryngitis, apartment hunting, and a chaotic few weeks at my shop have all taken me away from uploading, downloading and hosting. An end-of-May excursion and a June move to a gorgeous apartment (any collector will no doubt sympathize with the impending task of packing and moving of a near Collyer-size mountain of curiousities and books) will make my blogging a bit spotty for the next couple of months - my sincere apologies in advance. But please do keep it coming! Each and every contribution means a lot to me.

Submission Info

A New Concept: Collaborative Collecting

As a collector of many curiosities and items of limited appeal and availability, with limited means and space, and having many friends who have similar passions and limitations, it occurred to me that there are many of us and that we could easily band together and share our interests, knowledge and collections to create a trove of inspiration for and with each other.
My intent is to post an obscure topic and request submissions via email, which will then be curated and posted for everyone's benefit, effectively forming a collective collection where ownership is not the objective. In this way, a substantial collection could theoretically be pieced together from many small collections, or from the odd, companionless pieces of note that I presume are scattered over the world. My hope is that this will lead to the publication of books of these obscure collections for all of us to consult for our various projects.
My project will include Show & Tell evenings in the NYC area in which those of a similar mind can assemble and share their collections and the anecdotes, history and background that accompanies them, while meeting others who are cut from a similar cloth and opening up the possibility for forging new interests and friendships.
The stated emphasis here is a very broad idea that incorporates that which is suggested by the following words: antiques, antiquity, the various branches of history, scarcity, curiosities, obscurity. I am going to focus predominantly on topics that bring up little or no information when online searches are performed.