We all have those old family objects that have been around all our lives, and have become so much of the landscape, that little thought is ever given to them.
And so, it is with this small wooden piece showing a kitchen almost complete with furniture and the promise of bits long ago lost.
I have to say I was never over fond of it, thinking at times that it was fiddly, silly, and just old fashioned.
I remember it hung in the kitchen of the old house in Peckham, moved to another room when we moved to Well Hall, and twenty-six years ago headed north when dad died.
Even then I was a tad indifferent to it, and it was stowed away in a box in the cellar.
More recently I came across it and felt its pull, which transcended Manchester, London and Derby and I suspect took me back to Germany sometime before the Great War.
It may have arrived in the UK in the 1920s with Nana, who had married a British soldier of the army of occupation, after Germany had surrendered in 1918.
I always thought that Nana brought it with her as a reminder, but then it might equally have been brought back by dad from one of his tours of Europe, or bought by mum, from a second-hand shop on Queens Road.
But someone may recognise the style, and offer up a date and origin.
We shall see.
Either way it is a lesson in what we take for granted but suddenly realize has been part of our life carrying a story we have lost.
Location; pretty much anywhere
Picture; the family object, date unknown from the collection of Andrew Simpson
I have to say I was never over fond of it, thinking at times that it was fiddly, silly, and just old fashioned.
I remember it hung in the kitchen of the old house in Peckham, moved to another room when we moved to Well Hall, and twenty-six years ago headed north when dad died.
Even then I was a tad indifferent to it, and it was stowed away in a box in the cellar.
It may have arrived in the UK in the 1920s with Nana, who had married a British soldier of the army of occupation, after Germany had surrendered in 1918.
I always thought that Nana brought it with her as a reminder, but then it might equally have been brought back by dad from one of his tours of Europe, or bought by mum, from a second-hand shop on Queens Road.
But someone may recognise the style, and offer up a date and origin.
We shall see.
Either way it is a lesson in what we take for granted but suddenly realize has been part of our life carrying a story we have lost.
Location; pretty much anywhere
Picture; the family object, date unknown from the collection of Andrew Simpson
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