Souvenirs

These next objects have been on my mind for some time now, and I deliberately rooted (or should I say mudgered?) about to find in them in the drawers this weekend to see if they were just as fascincating as I remembered.

I've always liked to have souvenirs from my holidays and have done some work in the past with students and the objects that they brought home with them from field trips to New York. It's proved to be an interesting exercise, some seize the opportunity to swell existing collections, some want a unique marker of their visit, and some want to bring home a trinket that sums up New York through a more obvious 'tourist' souvenir. I remember our trip to Tallin, Estonia in 2005 fondly, as it was our first foray into the former Eastern Europe, a charming and relatively unspoilt, uncommercial place. Wandering around the small streets I came across a shop selling old soviet items, medals, posters, bank notes and oddments. It seemed a wonderful opportunity to take home something a little different.



And so reader, I found them. 15 Estonian kroon (I think around £2 or so at the time) secured the bag of old watch mechanisms, 15 in total with 3 watch faces. Nothing special in this you may think, and you would be right, a minature world of cogs but quiet unremarkable and commonplace.



However for me the little details of Russin letters, the shapes, colours and general patina of the faces evoke a time before liberation for the good folks of Estonia, when they were obliged to use Russian currency, learn the Russian language and distance themselves from their European cousins. I would recommend a trip to the Baltics, lovely people, but don't bother with the wine, when we were selecting a local bottle from the menu the waitress said "no, really, chose something else, it's not nice!"