It all started with (wait for it) a yard sale. And of course it was my husband who spotted a pair of framed bird prints someone was asking $5 for. We bought them.
Turns out they're hand-colored lithographs by John and Elizabeth Gould, published in the 1830s and part of their "Birds of Europe" series. One (on the right) is a "Doubtful Sparrow" and the other a "Lesser Grey Shrike." (Aren't bird names wonderful?!)
Leap ahead to, what else, another yard sale, and he picked up a pair of framed Audubon bird prints. Not, of course, from the original folio, but big and beautiful and framed.
Then, upgrading years later, Jerry picked up a later Gould print at an antiquarian book fair. We framed it and have it hanging on the stairs.
Much funkier, there's a pair of bird prints (1950s?) that I picked up at a yard sale and have hanging in our guest room. I love them but I think I'm alone in that sentiment.
Then there's a sassy smokin' pelican that I bought for Jerry at a print shop in Baltimore. It's advertising art. French. A VERY large bird with long eyelashes. And I knew Jerry would love it.
On our mantle there's a fleet of birds. Picked up on our travels. My favorite is the cast rooster which must have been used in a fireplace. I bought it at a flea market in Spain and schlepped it all over Europe and finally home.
Then there are the bird mugs. Lots of them. Including an utterly goofy pair that our daughter brought back for us from Europe.
And finally my favorite is a collage by artist Barbara Baum. A bird (robin?) is lifting a silverly strand of words from a rain battered urban landscaping. I got it for one of my bigger birthdays. How it looks changes with the light, and what it shows is a perfect metaphor for writing.
Are you a collector? Did your collection creep up on you or was it deliberate?
Your birds are lovely, Hallie . . . the mugs made me laugh . . . .
ReplyDeleteCollecting in our house means our Precious Moments. We started collecting years ago when we found a Precious Moments boy angel . . . .
It's dangerous... it's like a gateway drug, the first Precious Moments figure...
DeleteHallie, what a lucky find in those $5 Gould prints! We were given a pair as a wedding gift, handcolored hummingbirds, the first in our creeping collection. We have birds in every room in our house: prints, paintings, lithos, sculptures, a batik, and some funky figurines from Kenya.
ReplyDeleteI also have angels, thanks to my mother. At one point I asked her why she kept giving me angels. "Because you have a collection," she said. "That you've given me," I replied.
Somehow I knew you'd have a house full of birds, too, Karen. But angels? Hmmm. Interesting.
DeleteEverything with wings!
DeleteGood point, Maren! Never thought of it that way. LOL
DeleteI like the guest room birds!
ReplyDeleteMe, too. That 50s style gets me every time.
DeleteLovely collection, Hallie. Thanks for sharing. I like the way you have incorporated the outside into your home.
ReplyDeleteAs I look around our home, the thread or theme in each room is books. I’d have to say they are our collectibles. Cookbooks, from generations past. Nursing textbooks from the early 1900s to the 21st century. Gardening and birding books live aside woodworking and old homes volumes. Novels and non-fiction, biographies, memoirs and political thrillers abound. Spirituality and religious texts are next to aging and gerontological public health references. Then, there’s the writing craft books, since my retirement. These are just a few of the categories of the thousands of books that provide for multiple nook and cranny reading spots to lose oneself for hours with a large cup of tea.
As we age, I have successful downsized most areas of our home, but never the books. I treasure them, and insist that, if able, they will remain.
I’ve enjoyed your posts this week. Much appreciated!
Sharon Elizabeth
ah yes, you know you're in good company here when it comes to collecting books. What I have is a gazillion bird books.
DeleteI love all these bird prints! I used to collect ceramic horses, but have thinned the herd to a few especially loved steeds. Same with a collection of pottery. I'm not sure if it counts as a collection, but I have several antique items from my grandparents' farm: a cow creamer, a mantle clock, a couple of crocks, a jelly jar glass, a pitcher and bowl, and a wash stand. The only thing linking them is my childhood memories, but I'll never part with them.
ReplyDeleteI have the separator bowl from my grandparents’ farm that I made into a fairy garden, which I still need to reassemble following our move. I also have two cream cans from the farm that my mother painted. I had an old wagon wheel that I unearthed in the barnyard on one of our summer stays with Grandma and Grandpa. Eventually most of the wood spokes part rotted away from the metal rim and hub. Then I laid it down flat and planted flowers between the spokes, some of which I replaced with dowels. It was lovely, but I didn’t move it this time.
DeleteSo interesting! Of course you guys will never give up those things and the memories attached to them.
DeleteI’ve collected various things over the years. It started with pencils. Then I collected dolls, which mostly came from my parents’ travels when Dad had a company sales award trip. Then I collected small things for a shadow box. Now I do have a number of hummingbird items. And, I have a soft spot for Snoopy and Woodstock. None of it has really been done with a lot of intention.
ReplyDeleteNow pencils is a smart thing to collect. Small, easy to store... I used to look for tiles when we traveled. One took up so little space in the luggage. A *bird* tile was a win-win.
DeleteBesides books, I inadvertently became a collector of stuffed animals at work. When I left my Environment Canada climate change research job to do a 3-year secondment with Emergency Preparedness Canada in Ottawa, our director gave me a Beanie Baby giraffe stuffie. It was a symbol of adaptation and our group's unofficial mascot. After that, I started to collect locally based stuffies on international research trips (e.g. Ibex in Davos, sea otter in Monterey). Then my research team members started bringing me stuffies from their trips. I ended up with animals from every continent, except Antarctica! They took up a lot of space at my UofToronto office (30+ stuffies). Now that I am retired, most of these stuffies are in a bag in my storage closet.
ReplyDeleteI think there is a thing as too many stuffies... But I hope you take them out every once in a while... they must be laden with memories.
DeleteSure, each stuffie represents a unique work trip. The OG stuffy (Twigs the Giraffe), a trio of Nebraska pigs (int'l drought conference) & Monty the sea otter (climate change & water conference) are in my living room.
DeleteMostly I collect dust. Decades of dust
ReplyDeleteCollections? What constitutes a collection?
My estimate and that of the Louvre widely differ.
The only thing that might qualify in this house is a few hundred piece Fontanini Creche. Julie and I began this collection 30 years ago. We ended it about 28 years ago. By then it covered every flat surface from the dining room to the living room to the Sunroom. Several scenes, beginning with the Annunciation, then a pregnant BVM on a donkey, Severable stables and inns, and ends with the Flight into Egypt
I spent ages putting it up each year and then wrapping all 500000 pieces tin tissues and then their original boxes. I do not watch Antiques Roadshow for nothin’.
DeleteThat crèche hasn’t seen the light of day in ten years.
Hallie, all those beautiful birds! And best of all that picture. Much love
DeleteI can just picture this, Ann. The pieces and you arranging them. But it's a shame that they've gone into semi-permanent storage.
DeleteAnn, not often do I disagree with you, but…many “downsizings” ago, this became my mantra: “if it’s not out where you can see and enjoy it, then you don’t keep it”. I did carve out the holiday decoration exception, but not an Antiques Road Show exception. Good wishes to you and Julie. Elisabeth
DeleteElisabeth, I keep hoping we can pass this down to the next litter of grandchildren. Otherwise it sells well on eBay.
DeleteToday I had my first radiation treatment for lung cancer, Stage 1, no mets. The oncologist is hopeful
That's great news, Ann! We're thinking of you! xx
DeleteI like the bird prints, and I especially like the colorful mantelpiece ceramics! As for us, both of us are addicted to books, paintings & prints, and photos - mainly landscapes and portraits. We gave away a lot when we moved (making a lot of friends happy) because we had to seriously downsize. BUT ... The walls and shelves are filling up again ...
ReplyDeleteLandscapes and portraits! I can relate to that. The former more than the latter. One of our earliest acquisitions was an enormous picture of a very dour looking bearded male pater familias. The frame was worth more than the picture.
DeleteLove the pelican! We have two framed Audubon bird prints (pages from a 19th c. book), a pelican and wild parrots. I have refrigerator magnets from our travels which I rotate from time to time, everything from the Cluny unicorn tapestries my favorite Van Gogh paintings. They're fun, take up no suitcase space, and give me a brief flash of a happy memory. Bonus: my grandson is old enough to responsibly play with them.
ReplyDeleteRefrigerator magnets! Now there's a smart thing to collect. Fit in the palm of your hand.
DeleteWhat a great collection, Hallie. I did get a bit carried away collecting Christmas nutcrackers, but I'm starting to give them away. Somewhere I think I have a collection of all the postcards I ever received, but nobody sends them these days. My family and friends always sent one when we were away from home. I miss those days of writing very tiny and fitting a letter's worth of news on one card.
ReplyDeleteEdith, Jack found a collection of postcards kept by his father of old shots of Canada circ turn of the century. We wonder why, as he was not a traveler that we know of. I keep googling the titles on the front, and some are in various archives, and some are not. I think after we both tire of the research that we will donate them to the local archive.
DeleteAnd when I was A farmer and then later writing about a sleuthing farmer, I had quite the collection of vegetable earrings.
DeleteHow cool! Elizabeth
DeleteOver the years I have found myself focused on collecting "all creatures great and small"/woodland decor mainly for sentimental reasons. My M-I-L's maiden name was Gallo which in Italian means rooster so our kitchen is graced with 2 large and 1 small Italian pottery roosters. Throughout our home the ongoing theme seems to be mainly rabbits and bears slowly added over the years which I find very comforting because of their meaning. There are various framed prints on the wall of rabbits usually from artists from the 1400's and 1500's. One is a beautiful rabbit sketch print that I love but I don't know the artist but supposedly the original is from the 1400's. The other framed print is Albrecht Durer's "A Young Hare"; the original painting was done in 1502. I also have it decoupaged on both a stool and a serving tray by the artist Annie Modica. She has lost since retired and so, unfortunately, haven't her pieces which are so colorful, unique and beautiful. Another framed print of a rabbit I have on my workspace wall...a very whimsical greeting card from Hannah Dale (who also loves woodland creatures) called "Hare Brained". Whenever I am frazzled I look at that piece of artistry and laugh out loud. It goes well with my Leslie Moak Murray (of Murray's Law) magnet of a knackered cat saying "I am perfectly calm". :-) A reminder to me that life is not without its potholes in the road. The rabbit theme continues with Eric & Eloise rabbit bookends and a bronze aluminum wall mount of a rabbit with a monocle and a mustache. There is also a bronze aluminum bear wall mount wearing spectacles. And bronze bears all reading their books with their spectacles, too. All this decor is clearly whimsical by theme of which I love being surrounded with lighthearted and cheerful items. Life is serious enough for real so why not bring joy into the mix to balance it all out. The creators of this whimsy appears to think the same way. Hannah Dale brings joy into her woodland creatures artwork and the Nova Scotia author/artist Jessica Joy Hiemstra's decor and writer of the Eric & Eloise storybook collection for young readers is uplifting and quirky. Please note her middle name is Joy. :-) Above all else the rabbit and the bear are very meaningful in this household. My father's nickname for me from the age of two was "Bunny" and in memory of my dad my husband carries on that tradition of 70 plus years. Although he has reduced the nickname to just "Bun". I call him "Bear" because of his courage and fortitude and protective nature. He once told me I should write a children's story and call it "The Bear and the Bunny" but I'm afraid that's been done already...many times over.
ReplyDeleteP.S. I love the Pelican, too, Hallie! Plus the closeness and love of birds you shared with your Jerry.( I wish I could leave a heart emoji here.)
DeleteFeeling the heart emoji! Thank you. Birds are a great thing to share because they lead you to take walks in the woods, walks by the shore, walks just about anywhere with a partner.
DeleteWhen I was married, we did start some collections: matchbooks, corks from wine bottles, copper ware. For a long time collecting turned into 'depression thinking' -don't toss it; you might need it;- ergo hoarding. Now that we are de-cluttering, the house resembles an archeological dig. At one point, I was collecting rocks (why? anyone know?) The goal is simple. Get rid of the stuff so folks will not be saying "What's with the rocks?" and I will still have my memories and an easy to clean house.
ReplyDeleteThe bird theme works Hallie. My mom was a birder too and we also had a lot of bird related items. I vote for the bird mugs, they spark joy.
Coralee, I save corks, too, but I use them. We have a wood-burning fireplace, and I make firestarters with corks and other odds and ends every fall. Corks are also a lightweight drainage filler for plant pots. Now that so many wines come with screw-off caps I have way fewer around, though, so a friend save them for me, as well.
Deleteseems like the cork is an endangered specie. I think I read somewhere that cork trees are endangered...
DeleteI love your bird collection! I have an eagle in flight on one wall, and Y/T and E/J (the red tail hawk couple) on another. Both were presents. I'm not a collector--at this point, I want to get rid of stuff.
ReplyDeletePhotographs? I am so jealous of anyone with the patience and talent to photograph birds.
DeleteHallie, I love all your bird prints! My Mom collected cat figurines and I have many of those now. My grandmother started collecting angels when she lived in France and England after WWI. She died and my Mom took the collection and added to them, and when Mom died I got the collection. 32 years later it’s still growing, thanks to friends and my looking for unique ones.. Most come out the day after Thanksgiving and stay on shelves in the dining room until Epiphany.
ReplyDeleteIt's lovely that you're still enjoying them, Suzette.
DeleteYour bird prints are beautiful! I think I may have just discovered my new collection idea for myself! I have begun a small porcelain bird collection, along with rabbits (which have become increasingly scarce here in my part of the world and I hate to think of a world where we don’t get to see them in the wild any longer). Books are my primary fixation though. I have many of my childhood books, which I still treasure. I am much more selective about which books I purchase keep nowadays. I have a fun collection of mystery books, as well as classics. When I travel, I always stop in bookstores to look for special mementos. I was recently in Lyon and found an antique music book of French songs, a Japanese haiku book written in French! Plus an antique postcard book (still intact) of black and white postcards of French landmarks. For me, it’s as much about the thrill of the looking (mostly for interesting books on my travels) as it is to have them.
ReplyDeleteI agree, the finding is as much fun as the "having"
DeleteOh, these are all wonderful! Gorgeous. And the entirety of them is just as wonderful as they are individually. Xxxx
ReplyDeleteI have disappeared again. I will try sending this by paragraphs. Paragraph1:
ReplyDeleteCollections – I try not to. It seems to me if you have 2 of anything, someone decides that you are “collecting such and such” and suddenly you are bombarded with other people’s ideas of what you like. (my daughter ‘decided’ that we were collecting owls – we had one as our Christmas tree topper – really a one of a kind. I had to quietly take her aside…)
I do like art, but I like all my art to be different, unique and personal to us. In that vein some of the things we enjoy are a print of Robert Bateman’s Streambank June. https://robertbateman.ca/paintings/StreambankJune.htm
You're so right about people piling on if you admit to "collecting" anything. And heaven help you if you have a brief infatuation with porcelain frogs.
DeleteHallie, I love the guest room birds!
ReplyDeleteI collected Gund teddy bears, then bears of all kinds. They have not made it to The Cottage (which we have named Cloudview) because I'm not sure where I'd put them. Maybe in this empty shelf in the guest room/my office that has been designated as mine. But I'm afraid I will need it for books some day! But I do miss my bears.
I did bring a couple of bears for the main bedroom.
Wondering: do you name the bears?
DeleteThanks Hallie for posting your art collection of birds. It is wonderful! I too like the Barbara Baum one, but they are all so good it is hard to pick just one!
ReplyDeleteI collect original art mostly from local artists with the exception of a print by Diego Rivera (I wish it was an original - haha) and one original painted by a French artist from Moustiers Sainte Marie, named Isabel Merlet.
Collectig art from living artists is a great thing - Barbara Baum is not only a wonderful artist, she's a friend.
DeleteDenise Terry. I love your prints. We have a small collection of owl-related items.
ReplyDeleteA dear friend gifted me a small bear stuffie with an AIDS ribbon for a heart. From this, my dearly loved SIL decided that I collected bears--and proceeded to add to my 'collection.' And I have several ceramic pitchers which, I suppose, could constitute a small collection. Those I love for the way that form follows function, the lovely designs, and the fact that I can use them--for large bouquets plundered from the flowerbeds mostly. Books, though, are really my biggest collection, along with DVDs of quirky movies that have brought me many hours of laughter and entertainment.
ReplyDeleteI love all of your bird prints, Hallie! I have quilt tops that I pieced because I came across some lovely fabrics which featured birds. One of these days I hope to find a way to do the actual quilting again.
Flora above (Anon again!)
DeleteFLora: "quilt tops that I pieced because I came across some lovely fabrics which featured birds"!!!!!
DeleteI love this, Hallie ! I have a pair of Gould Hummingbirds that my Great Aunt Ann purchased and after she died my Mom (95) was given. They are now hanging above my stairs and I see them and love them daily. Birds both outdoors and in are my earliest memories from my Grandmother. I grew up on a dairy farm in GA with a large lake. Sitting on her lap as she would make the bird calls and they would answer back. She taught me which call was for said bird. I have loved birds, rabbits, fox, cats and dogs, cows and being in nature my entire life! I have passed this down to my three children and am working with my Grandchildren.And yes, I have a lovely rooster watercolor my niece painted, hand carved birds from my father ( my most prized possession.) my home is filled with nature all around and my love of birds extends outside where there are four Purple Martin Condo’s, multiple bird feeders of all kinds ! We are so lucky to have three porches where we bird/ nature watch daily !
ReplyDeleteThe Gould hummingbirds are the ones that still go for top dollar.
DeleteMary M - ANON Again
ReplyDeleteHallie, beautiful collection. Do I have a collection? Quite a big collection of BOOKS! LOL.
ReplyDeleteDiana
Hallie, I love your prints and your collage! I suspect the guest bedroom art might be from the 1930s; it has the Art Deco revival look from that period.
ReplyDeleteI also have tree bird prints I picked up for free over the years at the transfer station Swap Shop! They're beautifully framed, and go well with the "natural history" theme in my library.
Three, not tree. Although they're all pictured perched on branches, so I suppose "tree birds" is also correct.
DeleteHa ha! I was trying to figure out what a "tree bird" was.... It always amazes me what people throw away.
DeleteI started collecting angels before it became popular. I have some Hummels, and I have lots of angels that people gave me because they heard that I collected angels.
ReplyDeleteMy extended family and I go to Chincoteague VA every August for the birdwatching. Most people go there to see the famous wild ponies. The ponies are okay, but the BIRDING! The wildlife refuge there is like Paradise for birders! I started collecting carved birds there over thirty years ago. My intent was to buy one carving every year. I couldn’t afford some of my favorites, so some years I bought prints instead. People heard that I like birds, and I started receiving bird figurines as gifts.
And I have crèche sets from all over the world. I alternate which ones I set out every year. At first I put out all of them, but there are too many now.
I’m not letting myself collect anything new now. It’s time to start getting rid of things. I’m keeping my collections, but not adding to them. There are plenty of things I CAN get rid of, once I convince myself that I don’t need them, such as tax returns from the 1980s that I forgot I still had, or outdated college text books!
DebRo
I'd love to hear more about birding in Chincoteague VA in August! From their web site: Summer (June-August): Nesting season for species like the Black Skimmer, Piping Plover, and Osprey.
DeleteThe walls in our home also are filled with bird photos and prints, and the living room mantle and several windowsills are populated by many delightful winged friends. And birds easily outnumber every other type of ornament on our holiday tree each December. Some of our bird art is second hand, some is new, all brings joy.
ReplyDeleteBrenda, we must be "birds of a feather"!
DeleteAmy Tam has a book out about birds. I am also looking forward to reading "Christian Cooper's Better Living Through Birding," a NYT best seller. Christian Cooper was the black man that a white young woman walking her dog in a secluded park setting thought (wrongly) because he was black, he was out to harm her. She later apologized. I believe he hosted a National Geographic show called "Extraordinary Birder."
ReplyDeleteI like your birds, Hallie. Like Annette, I used to collect horse figurines. This phase started when I was around nine and went into a horse phase that lasted until I was 12 or 13, when I actually had the chance to ride horses at a summer camp. My horses were ceramic, plastic, wood, and glass, and I gave them all names! Now I only have one, a beautifully carved wooden horse from Italy from my mother, to remind me of my horse-crazy days! (As a child, I also collected bubblegum cartoons, baseball cards--I had Mickey Mantle!, shells from the beach, and even "interesting" rocks, but none of those lasted long.
ReplyDeleteWe ALL went through a horse phase at 12 or 13! Though I think it's mostly a girl thing. I was desperate to collect horse figures but fortunately never got started.
DeleteWe prefer old botanical, hand painted prints rather than birds. We found Eugene “Sparkie” Sparks in WELLFLEET and have a ton of his Cape Cod nature scapes and local flowers. We are also fans of Elizabeth Mumford seaside scenes as well as Kathy O’Neil’s mermaids. I’d rather watch the birds out my back window.
ReplyDeleteI love old botanicals, too.
DeleteGood afternoon , your bird collections are beautiful! I also like birds and I have collected a couple of them, for a little while I also collected mini tea sets, but it is a job having to wash every little piece of the mini tea sets by hand, I really love them though. I also have quite a few angels. Have a great rest of the week. I have enjoyed reading your post. Alicia Haney. aliciabhaney(at)sbcglobal(dot)net
ReplyDeleteThanks, Alicia!
DeleteHallie, I love your bird, especially the Barbara Baum print. So charming and whimsical, and perfect for a writer!
ReplyDeleteI guess I can say that I collect vintage London Transport posters, since I have at least thirty of them. It started as just a fun thing to bring back from London but some of them now are very collectible. I also have a lot of London photograpsh by my photographer friend Steve Ullathorne, but those are mostly in my office. The posters, on the other hand, are in every room in the house, and there is no room to hang another one!
I'm a birder and have turned my family onto birding. Now they get really excited when I announce that an evening grosbeak or pair of goldfinches came to one of the feeders.
ReplyDelete