It’s amazing what people throw away. This beauty was down
and out in the gutter outside my house last month. I looked around for a ripped
bin bag or evidence of a discarded declutter box, but the lamp was the only
thing on the kerb.
Naturally I took it in.
I’m guessing this piece of junk (see what I did there? Junk
being a flat bottomed boat with sails) was thrown away not simply lost. After all there was no plug, a
chunk of the wood had split, bits were missing and it looks there may have been a long 'prow' or figure head of some sort.
I wonder if the thing was lobbed out of a window in the middle of a domestic, with a yell of ... and I’m sick of
your trashy kitsch boat-lamp! I’ll never know, although I suspect it
probably belonged to my next door neighbour – they leave a lot of stuff on the
kerb.
I glued the boat bottom splinter, then found a couple of
wooden beads and toggles that could reasonably replace the missing bits – one
looked a little like a barrel.
The whole thing has the feel of a ‘kit’ about it, it’s not
beautifully manufactured – I wonder if it was a hobbyist’s project at one
time?
Amazingly the lamp is also ... a music box! I dug around for a
spare key and managed to get a little tinkle out of it, but the music mechanism
is quite bust. Ah ... I really should have replaced it before gluing her back
together.
But with a new bulb and a new plug, I think she looks quite majestic.
For those old enough to remember 'Bagpuss', I should really place the boat in my window for the owner to reclaim it, then go back to sleep on the Mouse-organ.
I’m amassing quite a few kitsch lamps and don’t have enough surface space
or electric sockets (to the relief of my family frankly). The Junk now sits on
a bookcase next to my parrot, but will have to remain un-illuminated unless I rig
up a complicated extension lead.
It would be great to hear about any similar lamp sightings – I reckon
it’s probably circa 70’s?
