Sunday, February 26, 2006
Forget-Me-Not Fairy
I'm wishing I'd recruited the cherubic Forget-Me-Not babe sooner in my own travails. As I enter "End Phase", to quote a spook author (more anon in next post), I sense wheels coming loose and that ol' familiar panic closing in. I think this is why God left us in open-code beta mode; so He and the lads could have a giggle at times like this. Feels good. The "Forget-Me-Not Fairy" Plate: I had intended this for Julie but having sold my wheels from under me am immobile. All the Fairy's fault, hanging up there invibly on the wall, but it is a gem of history and I'm probably giving away (or consigning to dumpster) an heirloom. Wiccan: When Elder Treasure was born (and christened) - in distant San Antonio* - out of the woodwork came all manner of distant relatives of dubious earthling provenance who sent her mega fung-shui gifts to see her thru life and counter-act her dad's incompetence in allowing her to be born "abroad". One such gift was a splendid plate that I see changed angle from one snap to another. Ulp From the shot of the reverse, you see it has one small (and very rusty) triangular hook with which to hang it. It dates from many years before Georgina's appearance in 1984, and probably hung in some Yorkshire nursery, bestowing elephantine memory to generations to Holmeses and Sutcliffes and so forth. Pity it didn't radiate some of its powers to Dad, but there you go .... I've marked [sic] where sensible readers would assume a typo. In particular, note the curious apostrophe in " 'toys" - what could it have been? I know that to her dying day, Aunt Miranda spelled it 'bus for omnibus, but what could 'toys be an abbreviation for? And what about that "blue an pink"? Am - was - I sitting on a unique mis-spelling of "and", making the platter even *more* valuable? Could the badly timed selling of my car have deprived Julie of an item that would have fetched enough at Christies to pay for her angelic daughter' education, yea unto Ivy League and beyond, *plus* her and Ted's comfy retirement to a sun-kissed isle? Verily, Le Bon Dieu mocketh us. Back to the wording, I of course thrill to the pink/blue profiling and wish now I'd let it hang backassward to provoke our more feminist pals, but the chance is lost. It reads: From "The Festival of Flower Fairies" "Where do fairy babies lie (Pink for girls and blue for boys:
As clear from photo left, I'm literally cornered and down to bare essentials. 
Shifty: How why it should shift angle from pic topic is beyond me and not a little sinister.
Wording:All is explained on the reverse, and is clearly old and verie Englyshe from the sheer provocative quaintness of the wording: "The Forget-me-Not Fairy"
Collection by Cicely Mary Barker
Plate Number 196877
Till, they're old enough to fly?
Here's a likely place, I think,
'Mid those flowers, blue an [sic] pink.
Pretty things for babies 'toys!)[sic]
Let us peep now, gently, Why,
Fairy baby, here you lie!
Kicking there, with no one by,
Baby dear, how good you lie!"
At the very bottom, a reminder that the plate is, "A work of art not intended for food use."
* A dusting of Fairy dust descends and I recall an amusing tale of Hong Kong's 1841 signing over to the Empire. Captain Elliott was the Britisher who handled it from our side. I can't remember the name of the hapless Chinese pol who handled the Middle Kingdom's side of the deal. Either way, they both caught hell, Elliott for being conned into accepting a useless "barren rock" and the Chinese official for giving away such a gem. Years later, the Chinaman had the chance to inquire after Elliott. He himself had been stripped of all possessions, his wife misused before being sold into slavery, his children sent to the work house. "And Elliott seen-sang?" he delicately asked. "Absolute disaster, " came the reply, "Punished beyond cruelty. "Despatched as British consul to Texas."
