Budleigh Past and Present

  Dear little Lithuanian I do adore your dress. Your eyelashes are charming And excite me, I confess. But when I read your history, And learnt from whence you came, It filled me both with sadness And a little bit of shame. © Michael Downes 2015 A new month is approaching and I intend to keep to my self-imposed promise that I would display each month an image relating to Fairlynch Museum. Not just on my blog, but on our smart new noticeboard, kindly provided by Honiton-based firm Duralife Windows. Just as I was scratching my head about what to choose next, Sue Morgan, our Toys, Dolls and Bears expert at Fairlynch kindly gave me some information about a Lithuanian doll in the Museum’s collection. I thought the story behind it was so sad that I was moved to write the above poem – well, my friend Annie calls my efforts doggerel – so, OK –  ‘verse.’ Here’s the story, based on information given by the donor, Miss ...

“I’d have thought you’d have got past that stage!” was one of the quips that auctioneer Piers Motley-Nash had to put up with from onlookers this morning as he was posing with this porcelain beauty from Germany . As it happened he had a ready answer. “My sister’s due to give birth soon so no doubt I’ll be holding a real baby before too long.” This Schoenau Hoffmeister doll is almost a hundred years old, but she certainly doesn’t look her age. Described in the Bicton Street Auction Rooms catalogue as bisque headed and open-mouthed with composite jointed body, she has moving eyes, is 69cm tall and has an estimate of between £120 and £150 in the antiques sale which starts at 10.00 am on Monday 11 November.   Bisque dolls are characterised by their realistic, skin-like matt finish . Piers, who is Fairlynch Museum’s Antiquities Consultant, thinks that she was made between 1915 and 1920 and that she’s the most interesting of the eight dolls in the sale.    So ...