LOST WORLDS

by Catherine Smith (Oxford)

It’s an ongoing love affair - caring for material ‘not designed to survive its immediate purpose’ - excavating the past’s waste paper basket. Each item handled, catalogued with tender solicitude; what’s base metal to some is seen as gold.

Look at these things. The Siege of Sebastapol board game with its perky Generals, played with a Teetotum. And here’s a lost world; a drawing of The Frost Fair on the Thames, 1684. Imagine white breath, ice creaking under your boots.

The Victorians loved clever creatures; marvel at Toby the Sapient Pig, a clairvoyant who could spell, read, cast accounts, tell the time. The flea circuses on the West Pier, where feisty fleas drew water, turned a windmill, fought duels with steel swords.

Here, the past is material, palpable; let’s honour what‘s gone before. Breathe in the scents of Sollitt‘s list - violet powder, lavender, bergamot and rose waters. Imagine a swan puff against skin; Dragon’s Root or Hemet’s Essence of Pearl for the teeth.

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What Catherine Smith says about LOST WORLDS:

Inspired by a visit to the Ephemera Collection at the Bodleian Library