Dusting

Cleaning the dollshouse;  It had not been opened since before Xmas so it was a tad dusty. Could do with some work I notice especially the curtains.  I am often to be found virtuously stating that I don't collect stuff, all lies, just looking at this house I realise it was miniatures I collected at one stage.

It has been in my household for about 35 years, bought for an uninterested daughter. It  has acquired bits and pieces, and I seem to know everyone of those bits and pieces, witness the frantic search for the two tiny Victorian dogs yesterday, which of course had fallen and hidden themselves.

Some of the furniture is quite expensive, the desk, tallboy and dining chairs, all had to be put together, other furniture I have made myself years ago. I can see the dusty hallways which have never been attended to, the front door was wrenched off by Tom when young, and still has not been replaced.  In the box of small things are silver swords, spears and shield, these became part of a Tudor Hall, took me ages to make  recess windows (you create a false wall). Tom would hang the dolls above with chains from the wooden hooks I had so meticulously made, in his defense he was only about three at the time.
Most of the things I made no longer exist, below is the Prittlewell Saxon burial, a royal burial part pagan, part christian.  The two bags were made out of fine leather from an old purse, and the little Roman chair folded up, pinning such work required patience.  In the second photo are two tiny silver Persian salt pots, which seemed appropiate for storing food.  The wood surrounding the burial was balsa wood, easy to score into planks and age.
I have of course, according to LS, a morbid fascination about death, of course I don't agree, but having visited such places as the Sutton Hoo burial, the Hochdorf burial in Germany, the Bartlow Roman burial mounds and the great Neolithic burial long barrows of Wiltshire one has to say, they did death magnificently....

A reconstruction, I think it figured in Britarch.

Reflecting on death;  We are blessed in historic terms that before christianity the 'after world' figured in belief systems, inheritance today is of course passed on to children but way back  then you took your wealth, food and drink with you to a better and braver world and in doing so left some sort of record behind.  The Prittlewell Prince by the way was hedging his bets with both christian and pagan belief systems, and his sons who buried him respected his wishes.
I have mentioned the Hochdorf burial mound in Germany, gold platter, a great bronze cauldron and various gold trimmings for the prince who was buried are also part of  the reconstruction of the museum there.  It took many years with work by skilled conservators to remake the bronze settee (and also the chariot) he was laid on and to set up beneath the museum the wooden chamber he was buried in. With good Germanic precision,  the great earth mound was also constructed in a field about a mile away, and over the museum itself a great metal arch denotes its size.
The Hochdorf Burial

Hochdorf Celtic Burial

Plates and cauldron but no food is exhibited.

 The Saxon Hoo Boat Burial