To get ahead on heads. An old saint a ram and a horse....and an easter egg...

Hello My friends, 

No this is not meant as a scene á la the Godfather where one wakes up with a marble horsehead in ones bed. Nor is it about the remains of a butchered nativity scene. Nothing of the sort, my friends. 

Last year I bought two silver candlesticks with fishes made by Stephan Wein. (I did not by the shell tazza between them) 

He exhibits at the Kensington/Londen dollhouse festival and has a shop on Etsy. He is a goldsmith by trade who also makes miniatures. His miniatures are not run of the mill items and quite gorgeous. The prettiest of those are things you have to save up for, unfortunately, but they are worth it. And this year I allowed myself to buy one more of them. 

As you may know a private catholic chapel will be added to Huis ter Swinnendael. Every chapel needs some silverware for the altar et cetera? One or two reliquary's and saint's statues would also not go amiss. But that is easier said than done. 

I had my eye on this old carved and painted ivory head of a bearded man on a base of silver and ebony. It was described as a saint's head and looks the part. However In my eye it missed something. I asked Stephan if it was possible to add a kind of halo to it. He agreed and made sketches of two different kinds of halo's. We agreed one of them and Stephan added the halo to the statue.

The result is stunning in my opinion. I first wanted a golden halo but Stephan advised me to choose silver because that would fit better with the existing statue. And seeing the result I can say that in my opinion he is absolutely right. I love the result! But which saint does it represent? Noone knows. So I am free to choose some obscure local saint.

The Ram's head and the Roman horse's head are made by Karl Blindheim. He lives in Canada and makes beautiful miniature sculptures. Mostly of animals but also plants and human forms. 

I saw these pieces on facebook and asked if these two heads were (still) for sale. They were and the price was luckily just within budget. Apart from being two stunning pieces, the charm for me lies in the fact that these are heads of animals. Several busts of humans, made of clay, metal, plaster and resin are for sale. But animal heads are quite rare. And now I've got two of them for the small but growing collection of antiquities of sir Zonneschut. 

The last item has nothing to do with heads, but I will show it anyway.  It is a mini Fabergé egg made by Sun from Nalladris. The photo above shows the original Rose trellis egg, made by Fabergé and given by tsar Nicolas II to his wife for easter in 1907.

Wait, what? A 1907 egg in a 1805 setting? Yes you are right. You are absolutely right. It is an anachronism and does not fit in the period of Huis ter Swinnendael...

However that may be, I love these eggs. Sun has a few eggs made in miniature, and I intend to collect all the ones that I love. One per year, for easter. And although I strive to make the house and collection both fit into the style and period chosen, it is not intended as a period museum and one or two anachronisms should not spoil the overall effect. 😁 And it helps that a lot of Fabergé eggs were inspired by older styles and periods. So it fits somewhat, kinda, a bit, enough... 

Unfortunately, due to a delay in the postal service the egg did not arrive until after easter. But I am not less happy to add it to my collection.

I hope that you will like my new treasures too. 

Huibrecht