31 January 2019

Pinocchio

Yesterday morning, as I vegged out on the sofa with this laptop on my lap, I looked up to see that sunlight was illuminating the mantelpiece. In a small way, I thought that it was quite beautiful. 

I took up my camera to capture the domestic tableau. There's Pinocchio in the centre. He once resided in my mother's glass display cabinet. She kept many interesting things in there. I have known that particular Pinocchio all my life.  Mum probably bought him a couple of years before I was born. He was most likely a bargain buy.

He is a clockwork figure and I can recall him being wound up and walking along table tops with his head nodding. He is associated with the animated Disney film of 1940. Unfortunately, he cannot walk now - like most old people he is rusted up inside

In the late 1940's similar clockwork Pinocchio figures were manufactured but as far as I can determine they were simpler and cruder than our Pinocchio who was most probably produced by Les Jouets Creations (Paris) in 1950. I have seen an identical figure on e-bay with an asking price of £300.

Of course Pinocchio had a big problem with his nose. Whenever he lied, it would grow a little bit longer.  Given her Brexit skulduggery, if Britain's  current prime minister had a similar personal problem she might now have an entire flock of birds roosting on her olfactory appendage.

29 comments:

  1. And of course Trump's nose would be fifty times longer than that.
    I do love that Pinocchio. He absolutely looks like something I would cherish. I'm glad you have him.

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    1. Trump and May could sword fight with their noses.

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    2. I would pay good money to see that.

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  2. I gather that you don't like Mrs. May very much! Maybe her nose should be checked!

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  3. It is a beautiful scene!
    I have a couple of hand made rag dolls which might one day have a similar nostalgic value but they have no way of standing :(

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    1. Couldn't you shove something up their rear ends?

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  4. I love antique toys and your Pinocchio is wonderful. I'm sure he must be a collectors item. He will be a special item to pass down to your kids or future grandchildren!

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    1. The way things are going I will be a skeleton before a grandchild wails his or her first cries.

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    2. No, you're going to be a wise old grandfather bouncing some little Puddings on your knee one day! Tell Frances and Stew to get busy after the wedding this year!

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    3. I know she wants a baby but financial matters make such a decision difficult these days.

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  5. When the sun lights up bits of my flat, I am always tempted to take pictures, too; it produces such a beautiful effect that sometimes lasts only a few moments, until the next cloud hides the sun or until our planet moves on and the sun's rays hit the outside wall and not a window.
    I always found Pinocchio had something a little scary about him; it definitely was not my favourite tale (book or film) as a kid.

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    1. Could that be because you sometimes told lies you naughty girl?

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  6. He is rather cute. The camel and the head are interesting, did you collect them from your travels abroad?

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    1. The camel is from Morocco and the head is from Cambodia.

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  7. When the sun lights up anything in this house, all I see is dust!!

    Did you ever see the TV programme in which people took their old things that didn't work or look nice and craftsmen/women in a barn in the country made them all new again? Just looked it up...." The Repair Shop" ...was on BBC 2. Your Pinnochio could be a contender for a future series? They like quirky things like that!

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    1. Thanks for that tip Frances... Now it's time to don your frilly pinny and grab your feather duster!

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  8. I like your Pinocchio, he looks like he's seen some stuff in his long life.

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    1. I need to make a little blindfold for him.

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  9. Pinocchio is my grand daughters favourite story and I have just this minute finished reading it to her...she in now having an afternoon nap and I can have a cup of tea and blog....how funny that I see this post immediately!x

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    1. I have extra sensory perception Libby! By the way, how old is your little darling now?

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  10. Well I do believe you have many talents Mr YP ! My first grand daughter was two last November...so 26 months...and the days that I care for her are the high spot in my week....and my newest grand daughter was born at Christmas so is just weeks old...and although I love her, at the moment all she does is sleep and pooh so until she is a little older I am ashamed to say her big sister is my favourite ...she holds the novelty of being my first! I know that you and Shirley will be the most amazing grand parents, and I do know how you feel about longing to see your children have children...I have felt it, nay yearned for it, so ...if it is in your destiny then you too will have the joy that I have on Nana days! x

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    1. I like that term "Nana days"but if Nana drank a full bottle of wine it would be "Nana daze"! How lovely to have two grand daughters and to be very involved in their journeys to adulthood.

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  11. Like poor old Pinocchio, my hips (not my inside, though) have rusted, but worse things could happen. Unlike dear old Pinocchio, my nose isn't growing. Lying isn't a habit I've fallen into. I do have, of course, moments of "diplomacy"...so those don't count!

    There is nothing wrong with "bargain buys"! :)

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    1. Many politicians are skilled in "diplomacy". Having grown up in poverty, my mother was always delighted to secure a "bargain buy".

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  12. Memorabilia takes on a certain increased importance as those with whom we associate it get further and further from us. I can imagine that your Pinocchio will always be a link to that important part of your past and the memories that go with it.

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    1. Pinocchio could so easily have been thrown away. You are right - now he is something to hang to like a precious memory.

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  13. May isn't the only one who'd have a greatly elongated proboscis by this point in the Brexit chaos! I love your Pinocchio. I also have a little cabinet of curios from my childhood and my family.

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    1. Sometimes I think that there might be certain advantages in losing everything in a house fire. Then there's be no encumbrances from the past.

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