One of the painless ways to become famous and land on the pages of the Guinness Book of Records is to collect something that no one has collected before you (or collected, but not seriously). When choosing items for the collection, you need to make sure that they are not back scratchers or umbrella covers, not petrified or miniature, with which we will begin this review.
Microchairs collection
In the late 1990s, American Barbara Hartsfield came up with a weekend hobby. It became not just shopping, but also searching in stores for miniature-sized chairs - ones that a person would not be destined to sit on, but also not doll-sized ones. By 2008, Barbara had collected three thousand interesting miniatures. Now lovers of tiny furniture have the right to see what she has accumulated in the museum created by the collector in the city of Stone Mountain (Georgia) by paying $5 per ticket. The museum operates in a specially restored old house with three exhibition halls. The exhibition includes, for example, chairs inside bottles and bird feeder chairs, chairs made from toothpicks and micro-furniture from the Coca-Cola company.
Collection of covers for umbrellas
Until proven otherwise, the resident American state Maine can be considered the world's only inspired umbrella cover collector. Her name is Nancy Hoffman. In 2012, the Guinness Book of Records was enriched with a chapter about her collection, which included 730 cases of various colors and styles from 50 countries. And since 1996, Mrs. Hoffman's house has served as a museum, open to all curious people. And while visitors marvel at the unique exhibition, Nancy, an unmarried musician, plays for them on the accordion the song “Let Your Umbrella Be Your Smile,” the official anthem of the private museum.
Fossilized poop collection
George Frandsen is the Indiana Jones of ancient crap; he is in possession of 1,277 samples of so-called coprolites, objects valuable to paleontologists. natural history, which have not smelled of anything for a long time. In the summer of 2016, 37-year-old Frandsen’s collection was included in the Guinness Book of Records, after which it was donated to the South Florida Museum for thematic exhibition, which is worth a visit - that the exhibition will last until October this year.
Museum guests can admire fossilized poop from 8 countries and 15 states of America. Of particular value is the national treasure - a two-kilogram excrement of a prehistoric crocodile, jokingly nicknamed “our charm” (remember Gollum). Crocodile filth is at least 6 million years old, and this jewel was discovered in South Carolina.
Collection of hotel requests
One of the ubiquitous symbols of living in a hotel is the “Do not disturb” sign, which guests seeking privacy hang on their room door. Tourists are familiar with such signs, why not a souvenir? However, travelers prefer to bring home T-shirts with pictures, key chains or refrigerator magnets as souvenirs of distant countries. But there are happy exceptions, among which is German citizen Rainer Weichert.
Hero of the Guinness Book of Records, Herr Weichert travels a lot around the world and loves to take the mentioned “Do not disturb” signs from his overnight stays as souvenirs. The hobby started in 1990, and in 2014, Rainer’s collection already included no less than 11,570 plaques from 188 countries, brought from hotels and airplanes, as well as passenger ships. The jewels of the collection are a sign from the 1936 Olympic Village (Berlin) and a 107-year-old sign from the Canadian General Brock Hotel.
Back scratcher collection
Manfred S. Rothstein works as a dermatologist and has his own clinic in North Carolina. Patients who come to see Dr. Rothstein with a pimple or scabies get a free look at the world's richest collection of back scratchers, collected by the doctor over 40 years of practice. Patients like it, even really.
In 2008, the Guinness Book of Records noted that the dermatologist’s collection carefully contains 675 samples of various, comfortable and not so, funny and serious back-scrapers, manufactured in 71 countries of the world. These pieces decorate the corridors of Dr. Manfred Rothstein's clinic, its offices and examination rooms. The selection includes a scratcher made from a crocodile's paw and its cowboy counterpart made from hand-painted buffalo ribs. There are three electric models dating back to the 1920s and a specific item branded as the Bear Butt Scratcher. Once upon a time, the doctor collected various medical antiquities - ancient medicines and creams, strange dishes and containers, but his love for scratchers became a lifelong hobby, and grateful patients send Rothstein exhibits from various parts of the Earth - from Japan to Ireland, from Russia to Palau. At the same time, the doctor himself does not like scratching his back too much and considers his hobby “professional.”
Traffic cones collection
With 500 traffic cones You can make even more of that mess. Fortunately, England resident David Morgan does not have such vile plans - he simply collects these cones. The obsession with plastic bollards began while Morgan was working for Oxford Plastic Systems, a company that produces traffic cones in huge quantities, the most of any company in the world. In 1986, a rival company claimed that people in Oxford had stolen its cone design. To prove that the idea of this design is not new to competitors, David - a rare bore - began searching for identical cones on the roads of the country and... fell in love with their diversity, at the same time winning the case. Collecting traffic cones has become a lifelong hobby. It should be noted that Mr. Morgan did not steal a single column from his collection, only because these items were created to ensure safety. Nowadays, hundreds of such items amazingly decorate the garden of the 74-year-old original.
Exhibitions of private collections always pique my interest. If only because there are few such exhibitions. This collection focuses on conceptual art and surveys the changing face of portraiture from the turn of the last century to the present day through photographs, drawings, sculpture, video installations and paintings by leading international and Israeli artists.
The Yigal Ahuvi collection consists of more than 1500 works, and is the largest in Israel. The fifth series of exhibitions features works by Diane Arbuse, Andy Warhol, Marlene Dumas, Richard Prince, Amadeo Modigliani, Frank Aurbach and many others.
All works bring not only aesthetic pleasure, but also inspire. For example, when I saw a photograph of Ingmar Bergman’s muse Liv Ullman, I immediately wanted to watch the film “Persona” with her participation, because it’s impossible to stop looking at her.
It is worth noting that the vernissage was attended not only by people of art, but also by local representatives secular society, which is rare for such events. Among the guests were producer Moti Reif, model Galit Gutman, as well as Anna Bukstein and Michal Anski.
And, despite the fact that there were a lot of people around, we managed to meet and ask a few questions to the curator of the exhibition, Matan Daube.
Matan began his career as an art critic for the portal Time Out Tel Aviv, and then took a direct part in the creation of the art fair.
— Tell us a little about your path.
— Currently, I am in London most of the time and work with the largest and most prominent private collection works of art in Israel. I am also one of the regular organizers of the Fresh Paint fair.
— When did the collection begin to form?
- Only in 2004. The collection is currently exhibited in Tel Aviv, London and Geneva. Our goal is not to promote art, we want to diversify the life of the Israeli audience.
— Where will the next exhibition be held?
- I don’t know, somewhere in the world.
— What should be the first step of a curator who wants to organize an exhibition?
- First of all, he needs to understand for whom he is doing this, who will come to see it, and who will be able to enjoy it.
— Do you personally collect works of art?
— Yes, I collect, mostly artists and galleries with whom I work give me their works.
The following 10 old photographs are published online for the first time and open a new section of our magazine. The presented photographic materials have not yet been published on the Internet, newspapers, magazines or books. It is known that “a picture is worth ten thousand words,” and the emotion generated by it is even more valuable. On the other hand, hundreds of thousands of unattributed, taken out of context, photographs without captions or accompanying information are poured into the network every day, becoming, alas, “information garbage” that can be used in some cases, to admire, but which gives nothing “neither the heart nor the mind.”
Our first 10 photographs concern the history of the “bearish corner of the Moscow region” - the village of Fryanovo. Unique photographic materials are presented in the exhibition of the Museum of History and Local Lore of the Municipal Educational Institution Secondary Educational School No. 2, which, it is worth noting, is not so easy to visit. The selection of photographs is quite random, but contains excerpts from previously unpublished memories of local residents...
The above photograph was attributed as the “Gendarme Department of Bogorodsky District”. However, it is known that such an institution did not exist. There was the “Moscow Provincial Gendarmerie Directorate”, from which the assistant chief of Guba was in charge of the affairs of the Bogorodsky and Dmitrovsky districts. Gendarmerie Directorate (in 1909, for example, captain Nikolai Pavlovich Martynov). Most likely, the photograph shows the heads of the District Police Department (police marshals of five camps in the district, police supervisors in the city of Bogorodka, Pavlovsky Posad and two factories - Bogorodsko-Glukhovskaya district and the factory of Tov-va L. Rabenek in Shchelkovo). The photograph is undated.
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According to the hint: the photograph shows the lower ranks of the army infantry in uniforms of the 1882 model (before 1907): three ensigns in the position of sergeant major, two sergeant majors, two non-combatant senior ranks (most likely clerks) and one corporal. They have nothing to do with the gendarmerie or the police.
Caption: "The oldest wooden building in the village of Fryanovo. 16th century." The last “chicken hut” with an earthen floor in the Shchelkovsky district, built in the 18th century and “surviving” until 1981/1985, was described in the book of architects-restorers Boris Pimenovich Zaitsev and Pyotr Petrovich Pinchukov “Solar patterns: wooden architecture of the Moscow region”, published in 1978 [ Download.]. Monument wooden architecture it was planned to move to the Moscow regional local history museum(since 1991 - “Historical-architectural and historical-art museum “New Jerusalem”), located in the city of Istra on the territory adjacent to the New Jerusalem Monastery. The hut was bought from the owner and dismantled, but the 90s prevented its assembly in the museum. The hut was irretrievably lost.
A unique photograph of the residents of the village of Fryanovo near Moscow - participants in the Russian-Japanese War of 1904-1905. - three brothers - Stepan, Ivan and Kuzma Starikov ( from left to right).
A rare photograph signed “Management of the Fryanovsky factory of the Zalogins (before the revolution).” Perhaps the photograph (before 1917) was taken on the territory of the Fryanovskaya worsted spinning factory. You can see in the photo Sergei Ivanovich Stavrovsky (1870-1924) - manager of the factory since 1912 (compare) - in the top row in the center of the stairs, and the engineer of the French department of the factory, Germain Albertovich Glintzig (1885-1967) - fifth from the left after 4 ladies.
An interesting photo, presumably, of participants in one of the many theatrical productions drama club organized by S.I. Stavrovsky. The photo is signed “Intelligentsia of the village of Fryanovo (before 1917).” Its dating before 1917 raises great doubts.
"The troupe of the drama club of the village of Fryanovo. In the center is the son-in-law of the manufacturer Zalogin, Stavrovsky." According to the priceless memoirs of Fryanovsky resident Vasily Kuraev, a business partner of the Fryanovsky factory, the famous Russian theater director Konstantin Sergeevich Alekseev (Stanislavsky) (1863-1938), who came to Fryanovo, “was satisfied” with the productions of the Fryanovsky factory theater. The participants of the drama club were: Ignatov Nikolai Mikhailovich, Urvantsev Ivan Petrovich, Chernikov Ivan Grigorievich, Loginov Vasily Mikhailovich, Kruglushina Olimpida Nikolaevna, Batenina Maria Sergeevna, Kuraeva Maria [Marina?] Nikolaevna, Urvantseva Zinaida Mikhailovna, Butylkin Mikhail, Barinov Ivan Alekseevich, Abrosimov Ivan Andreevich, Soboleva Anna Georgievna. Also, sometimes her brother Mikhail Georgievich Sobolev took part in children's roles.
Caption under the photo: "1924. Komsomol meeting. At this meeting the first pioneer detachment was created." Presumably, future pioneers on background sitting and standing on the railing of the veranda on the south side of the Fryanovo wooden estate that has survived to this day. On the other hand, the general configuration of the wooden structures raises doubts about what has been said, or indicates significant reconstruction of this time in part of the southern portico.
According to the memoirs of Vasily Kuraev, the organization of the first pioneer detachment in Fryanovo took place in 1924 as follows: “The pioneer leader, who completed a two-month course for physical education, was Alexey Ivachkin, but things didn’t work out for him. The first pioneer leader was Alexey Stulov as a public commission. The detachment was big and Anna Kuraeva-Rezchikova was the second pioneer leader to help him. When she was getting married, the pioneers turned to the secretary of the Komsomol cell, Gvozdarev, so that he would prohibit her from getting married, and she worked as a pioneer leader. Soon they sent Sergei Ivanov as a pioneer leader."
According to the memoirs of one of the first pioneers, Fryanov: “At that time we were 12-14 years old, and this was in the 20s, and there were about fifteen of us such boys. These are: Bulanov V., Beschastnov A. , Karpov N., Vorobyov V., Abrosimov B., Aksentiev N., Gruzdev M. and S., Dolgov F. and others. free time spent on the street, most of all in the so-called Endava, where they played war. We had homemade rifles, sabers, and skis were made from old planks from barrels. In the summer, they gathered near Uncle Sergei Batenin’s house and listened to fairy tales from the evening until late at night, so much so that it was scary to go home, and he was a great master at telling fairy tales. Well, with the onset of the time for the ripening of fruits, the hunt began for other people's gardens, where after our invasion there was almost nothing left. We were led by A. Ivachkin, about five years older than us. This continued until 1922. On the initiative of Komsomol member S. Rezchikov - “Spartak” (the name Spartak was given to him for active work in the Komsomol) A. Ivachkin organized us into a pioneer detachment. In the workers' palace (the former estate of the Zalogin factory owners), we were allocated a room called “Pioneer”, where we spent time, mostly engaged in drill training. Then our squad began to grow rapidly. Girls started joining it."
