Meaningful and Memorable Objects

We tend to surround ourselves with objects of personal significance. Whether it is something beautiful to look at, something to make us happy, something useful, something which evokes poignant memories, our objects tell a story.

Today, we can find books in print, online articles, and blog posts from people looking at the things around them and sharing their stories. Artists may use objects as iconography hidden meaning) in paintings. When we have an opportunity to visit the personal space of friends or family, we may discover something new through the objects they hold dear. The mirrored gazing ball in this photo is actually a vintage Christmas tree topper from a shop on Postoffice street in Galveston, Texas.

Maria Hummer-Tuttle’s book, Objects of Desire, is a beautiful series of photographs of objects she has collected over the years along with brief stories and poems conveying the back stories. It was difficult to decide which objects to include in this post as the book is simply breath-taking.

Here is a photograph of her grandfather’s pocket watch. You too may have something that once belonged to someone beloved.

This is a photo of Maria Hummer-Tuttle’s dressing table. She wrote a poem about the objects on the table-top, concluding with the words, “Together now they compose their own scene for an audience of one.” She shares the thought that a dressing table (or other personal space) tells the tale of a woman (or person).

Luc Charbin was allowed to delve into the Hermes archives and along with Alice Charbin who illustrated the book, compiled a delightful series of pieces about artisans and objects in the Hermes history. I read Hermes Straight From the Horse’s Mouth in one evening after dinner and marked a few to share with you.

The first is a rhinoceros designed by Leila Menchari in 1978 for the windows of Hermes. According to the story the inspiration for the rhinoceros was a woodcut by an early printmaker, Albrecht Durer. Menchari’s rhinoceros is covered in white ostrich leather with a horn of gold leaf. Zouzou, as she was named, was sold, disappeared, and was later rediscovered and returned to Hermes. She now travels extensively, gracing the windows of shops across the globe.

The second is a drawing of one saddler handing an awl to another. As the story goes the handle of the awl was made from a lemon tree and each generation of saddle makers at Hermes cut a groove in the handle and passed it to the person who would take his place. The tale is told by Didier Bonhomme, the fifth generation of craftsman.

The authors of the Remodelista blog and books have published another book, titled Remodelista: The Low-Impact Home. The book features 75 “beloved vintage items, many from our own childhood homes.” One of my favorites is this dishwasher-whitened wooden spoon belonging to Julie and photographed by Justine Hand.

In a New York Times ‘Profile in Style’ Jil Sander clothing designers Lucie and Luke Meier discuss meaningful objects inspiring the minimalist styles they create.

This is a pair of gold Indian earrings Lucie bought in a Milan antiques shop.

Here are some of the bowls Lucie has collected in travels with Luke to Sri Lanka and Japan, as well as others she has made herself.

Here are some of the cherished objects in my world:

We have these two hands in our studio; the graphite hand on the left belongs to my husband and the wooden Santos hand is mine. My husband jokingly scribbled with the graphite finger, but only a little as we want it to last forever.

This painted box holds my watercolors, brushes, and jar tops for mixing paint. The box belonged to my great grandmother and was originally designed to hold cut glass bottles of fine brandy The top opens and the sides swing out.

These are the dried, twisted branches of two standard gardenia bushes. I cut them from the desiccated plants and painted the ends with glue. They have a serene, sculptural quality and remind me plants such as this have a tough time surviving the white-hot sun of the Texas Hill Country summers.

This handbag belonged to my grandmother. A handbag such as this would have been used on special occasions. During a summer ceramics course, I used it as a model for an evening bag constructed of clay. This was not a “keeper”.

I have been gathering pieces of old lace for years and used a metal dry point tool to draw the image of this piece on a copper plate to print. This was a challenge of many hours under a magnifying lamp when it seemed as if nothing existed but the threads of the piece of lace. I made prints of several iterations of the plate as the work progressed.

A metal document box on an old map drawer case with the initials of an unknown person now holds beads and beading supplies.

Flowers from my sister’s wedding cake, rhinestone buckles and shoe ornaments under a glass globe mounted on a brass stand.  My husband won the brass stand and a gigantic vase from our local public radio station when he knew the answer to the question, “What did the original Clarabell the Clown do after he left the Howdy Doody show?”

One of six insect prints unearthed from a dusty cardboard box in the back of a shop on Magazine Street in New Orleans.  They are a now framed and featured in our laundry room! Though beautiful they are unequaled by the praying mantis and stick bugs who inhabit our garden and sometimes rest on our windows looking in at us.

An “altar candle” made of memories. The twisted gilded wooden piece from an architectural salvage yard, the molded concrete base – a tiny plant stand from Thompson and Hanson Garden Store, the pale green marble piece – a coaster, and the rusted filigree candle holder -a metal crown piece from a shop in Fredericksburg, Texas.

Mother of pearl and bone pen nibs rest in a slot of our desk beside a horn cup purchased at a shop at the Pearl in San Antonio, Texas and seed pods from our red yucca plant.

The first fossil unearthed on our land as the house was being built. We have found others since and call them cinnamon rolls because of their curled formation.

A crystal mineral found at a quirky plant nursery in Seabrook, Texas. They used to have wooden planks on concrete blocks out back covered with dirty unpolished minerals.  We would drive out to look at the plants and pick through the minerals, choose a couple, then get them weighed on a metal scale at the check-out desk. Fun purchased by the pound!

Our bronze sitting ballerina is one of 56 created by an artist named Villareal and purchased at the Mercado in San Antonio, Texas years ago when we really could not afford her. She has rested in the heart of two other homes and continues to bring us the greatest joy and feeling of peace.

This is “Mrs. Melvin,” an Atmos clock given to my grandmother by my grandfather one Christmas in the 60’s. There is an engraved plate on the front of the case with her name and the date he gave her the clock. We wrapped the clock in quilts and took it to a clock repair shop several times to no avail. She is a treasure to both my husband and me, but works only intermittently!

Believe it or not, this is a moth we found in our front garden!

Our bain-marie is something we use frequently to melt chocolate for a souffle or to heat eggs and cream for custard. When my husband gave it to me I thought it was a beautiful thing I wouldn’t use often; how wrong I was! 

The silver handled Victorian clothes brushes were collected over several years. They are now in the top of a black wooden box with a glass top on my own dressing table!  Never to brush clothes; only to bring happiness.

Most precious to me is this tiny mesquite box which fits in the palm of my hand and sits on the table beside the chair where I start every day having a cup of coffee and reading a bit. My husband made it for me in response to the question, “What is the smallest box you can make?” I love the fractured wood knot on top of the box and the smell of the mesquite. I love that he answered my question with something made by hand.

Just finished reading a fascinating book by Austin native Thatcher Freund, Objects of Desire: The Lives of Antiques and Those Who Pursue Them. This is a must read for anyone interested in memoir, antique furniture, woodworking; well, just about anyone. Within the book is the story of a blue blanket chest made in the 1700s with its original paint so elegantly simple he compared it to a work of modern art.

Two works of fiction centered on objects and the stories they tell in my personal collection of 100 Great Books are Annie Proulx’s Accordion Crimes and Nicole Krauss’ Great House.

The movie version of To Kill a Mockingbird” opens with the sound of a child humming as the camera focuses on the contents of a cigar box filled with fascinating objects; a marble, a clay figure, a watch…each of these objects is a part of the larger story. The things we keep in our environment are also a part of a larger story. What do you keep close to you?