Purses from the elephant box

Some of the little wonders that I've shared with you over the past few days seem to have crept into the elephant box since my mum inherited it. But one thing I remember from the box's days with my grandmother was a collection of Victorian purses:

The three at the top are miser's purses. It's well worth 'Googling' these things - such a wealth of information and images which my grandmother would have loved! I think she did see the internet once or twice  - what she could have done with it...

Lovely little charms (the boar is my favourite) on this faded purse.

This one comes with a letter (I'm sorry - I can hardly read it but I know it's addressed to 'Dear Mary').

The purse with its ring was left to dear Mary - I think the ring was a family one and had been put onto the purse quite recently for her to inherit it. Really, it must be very old! I have got to knuckle down and transcribe the whole letter...

It's lovely to share these wonders with you, and to read your comments. Jenny, the elephant box is 'standard' box size - these things are just very small! Loved your comment, though.

Editorial note: I'm taking one of my blogging breaks - but this time it's going to include other internet activities too! I'll check my emails, though, for anyone who really needs to get hold of me... have a lovely week and I'll be back online Sunday 18th November!

Hand-decorated Pincushions

I can tell you one thing:

The women who made these pincushions would have been blogging about them, if they'd had the opportunity!



Can't you just imagine them, sharing patterns over the net?

Buying beads and silks online? Although, I think a trip to the shop would have been a lot more exciting - I'd love to have gone with them!

I imagine that they got a lot of their patterns in newspapers and periodicals.

This one has faded so much, but in a way the photo brings out some of the details, and the incredible depth of the painting.

Very textured paint, this one.

I love this one - shame about the mottling.

Punched and stitched cardboard - how incredible!

I imagine these talented ladies gave away quite a lot of their handicraft - so they'd have liked this challenge from The Year of Less! I'm going to be joining in, but I know I won't be able to make anything as beautiful as these 100-year old pincushions, collected over the years and found by me in the famous Elephant Box.

Little Mary and her six frocks

Little Mary has lived in the elephant box for decades - maybe a century!

She was an absolute highlight of my rainy Saturday afternoons with my grandmother.

She's so stylish, and she's all drawn by hand...

I've been guessing that she was 'born' in the 1860s and the similarity of her dresses to Tenniel's Alice in Wonderland could mean that I'm right. And don't you love her shoes?

I'm crazy about her travelling outfit, too!

I'm not so keen on the yellow with ermine (ermine???), although it looks warm...



I wonder if this is a party dress for winter, or an outdoor summer dress? I'm rather getting the impression that Little Mary has a winter wardrobe, so I'm going for this one as a Christmas party dress.

I think this is her day dress.

This is how she 'works'. I'm a bit upset about the lack of  hat for her hat stand - I really can't remember if there was one in the envelope when I was little, but there certainly isn't one now...

Good night, Little Mary!



Inside the Elephant Box - Part 1

There are two layers in my elephant box!

The box was given to my mother and grandmother by friends whose Victorian grandmother had been quite a collector...

As many of you guessed, it contains a lot of sewing equipment (no buttons, Betty, so you can read on!), including this quirky little pin cushion designed like a domino.

The domino pin cusion was in a compartment on the left, and, lifting the little lid above it, I found this leather needle case, the large 'needle' and the two amber rods... even after years of treating this box as my 'rainy day' box, to share with my grandmother, I really don't know everything that's in it!

Juanita makes a key point- not only is the box's inlay ivory, but the needle case seems to have snake skin on it and the 'needle' is almost certainly tortoise shell. My mother taught me to be horrified by the killing, but to respect these antique artefacts - I wonder what the rest of you think?

Just to add to my ethical issues over the ancient massacres of endangered animals, here is a collection of carved ivory bangles my mother bought in charity shops and (one of) my grandmother's crocodile-skin handbags. My mother bought the ivory bracelets because she couldn't bear to see something which represented so much life and work (obviously mainly on the part of the elephant) being sold as if it were plastic. She never wore them.  My grandmother bought the handbag because that was just what you did in those days... what do we do with it all now, I wonder?

Here is a box...

Here is a box,

an elephant box!

Opened and ready to play.

But this box can hide many secrets inside...

Can you guess what is in it today?

Mmm, textures!

The juxtapositions idea is still really holding my interest - I took these photos a while ago after I'd sorted buttons and ribbons into boxes, and now this detail of two vintage, handmade pincushions and the little vintage needle case, placed on three different wooden boxes, is really satisfying me! If I turn round I can see the real thing - it's the stack of boxes on the shelf at the top of the stairs. The wooden boxes currently contain my button collection - it's not that easy to slip the odd button into the stacked boxes, but I think the look is currently worth the effort, and I'll change it again once I get fed up with it - playing with the collection of buttons and boxes is half the fun!

I took the buttons out of my fabric boxes, as they were rather heavy and endangering some of the cardboard-based box bases. Now the fabric boxes are holding ribbons, binding etc, colour-coded according to the box! I did this earlier in January and so far the system is working well - when I needed some black binding I found it quickly in the third box down on the left, for example. (It was for mending Son 1's trousers, which have all got beaten up by cycling - but not on the chain side, for some reason!)Of course Son 1 won't be cycling, or even wearing long trousers, for a while. He's currently trapped on the sofa, wearing a leg-brace, following his second knee operation. Thanks so much for your kind words both before and after the op. Everything went so well, and everyone - hospital staff, friends and above all Ben, were so helpful. But for me today has still been a day of feeling a bit low and fighting off the desire to cry at times - it's just an emotional business, supporting your child through an operation. Despite this, thinking of the alternatives - living in an under-developed country, or living in a wealthy country but not having good insurance - make me realise we are really blessed. And looking at pretty boxes helps too ;)