At the end of 2023, after over five years of having a retail presence at Sandiacre Antiques Emporium, that part of the Anything In Particular story came to a close. It was great to have the connection with Tyna and the other dealiers and we are massively grateful to Tyna especially for all the laughs, kindnesses and help over the years. She’s a gem – truly – and we’re wishing her a happy and healthy “retirement”!

The loss of the physical space has prompted a significant refocusing, but alongisde that there are some personal circumstances which also have an ongoing impact on the capacity to do Anything In Particular in the way it was intended. In the short term, this means that the online shop is also paused whilst adjustments and plans are made. If you are interested in an item, though, please do get in touch to discuss. Sales will still be made, but not in the way that they were previously.

Future plans might include events and/or “pop-up” shops, so hopefully we might see you then/there – when then and there take shape. Hopefully, we’ll see you in some way, shape or form on the other side of this break.

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The Fornasetti Eyeball Paperweight which is in the display cabinet at Sandiacre Antiques Emporium seems to get quite a lot of attention. The design of the eye itself has become iconic and much copied, and it seems particularly apt when used on an almost globe-shaped ceramic paperweight such as this:

It isn’t for sale at the moment. It’s there as a reminder to me that items have a worth which is only a matter of perception and circumstance. When it was first spotted during a very casual charity shop perusal, it simply appealed because of the design and the feel of it in the hand. It just looked and felt “right” but nothing more than that. I certainly hadn’t recognised it as an identifiable “thing” at this stage. It was cheap enough and it actually was functional for what it is: a paperweight. A place would be found for it.

So, it was handed over to the woman at the till and I readied to purchase it. I had already noticed that the woman was in a rather distracted and animated chat with a colleague (I say “chat” but it was gossip-like in tone), and somehow at the point of opening the till and asking me for the money, she managed to effortlessly fling the paperweight back over the counter and onto the floor. A surface which, unfortunately, was a little too unforgiving for the paperweight. it suffered an almost complete fracture to make two halves. The internal “core” was also damaged and could now be heard rattling around inside, clearly also in several pieces. Cue an awkward and embarrassing silence, and then an apology and an offer to have it gratis.

Nonetheless, I brought it home and did some research. The paperweight was retailed by the Pop Art shop Dodo Designs and it was indeed a Fornasetti. Current prices for these varied somewhat, but suffice to say even a conservsative estimate was substantially more than the price in the shop. For some time afterwards, there was a deep and sinking feeling of value lost or certainly money not gained (and a little bit of ire directed at the shop assistant, who really should have been paying more attention!).

Without knowing about the item it would simply have been a much less impacting sense of sadness that a nice little ornament had been damaged and so my feelings changed. It became less about the value of the item in financial terms and more about the item itself and with that in mind, I set about repairing it. The inner core was shattered and beyond repair and the two halves required reuniting. I weighed it and did some research to find out what it should weigh and, after some planning and several days execution, I carefully put it all back together with a new core which had the same weight as the original.

The end result is a paperweight which looks very attractive, feels nice in the hand, has a good weight to it, and isn’t in several pieces. Yes, it’s a Fornasetti. Yes, it would have been worth quite a decent amount of money without the mishap which befell it. Yes, it’s a shame. Yes, it’s on display.  No, it’s not currently for sale. It’s a very material reminder about cost, about value, about trying to make good out of bad, and about not hanging onto a negative outcome when there’s another way. I found a place for it.

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In the last few months, the stock at Sandiacre Antiques Emporium has been updated regularly and expanded dramatically from the initial beginnings. There’s now a whole corner of Anything In Particular!

The range of items held at Sandiacre Antiques Emporium is constantly changing and whilst there is some cross-over between what is found there and here, often it is there that an item will first be made available. So, please do visit if you’re in the area (it’s just a few minutes from Junction 25 of the M1). The owner, Tyna, is a wonderful lady and you are sure to find good humour from her and things of interest there – if not from Anything In Particular then certainly from one of the other dealers…

The plan for Anything In Particular is to keep expanding the array of items, including more lighting and electricals (desk lamps and flip clocks becoming something of an obsession) whilst retaining the core ethos of antique to vintage, decorative to downright bizarre.

In other and related news, Anything In Particular is becoming a solo project in the very near future. Expect more of the same, only different, and expect not only some things in particular (desk lamps and flip clocks, anyone?!) but lots more of just about anything in particular, as long as it’s good and/or interesting.

Thank you to all past and existing customers – and to prospective ones. Your stories and your orders make a genuine difference and keep Anything In Particular busy and happy!

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Fast forward a few months, and having put the picture to the side,  searching for information about a completely different object, we had a chance encounter with an item which looked very much like our own and this turned our assumptions about it upside-down.

The item we came across wasn’t exactly the same as the one on our walls, but it was close enough to warrant further attention. A little more reading resulted in an identification of our “1960s/70s European textile picture”, and with some apprehension we set about confirming this by removing the back of the picture to see what was underneath. According to our research, this might gives us concrete clues as to its origin and that very much proved to be the case:

You are probably already thinking that’s not the usual style for European newspapers! It is, however, very much the style of a Japanese newspaper. What’s more, a clue within the otherwise unintelligible page, provided us with a possible means of dating the newspaper and – with a relatively good degree of accuracy – the embroidery attached to it:

A little more research revealed that the Fourth National Exhibition in Japan took place in Kyoto, in 1895. This means, obviously, that the newspaper couldn’t be older than the advert referring to it.  The embroidery wasn’t likely to pre-date the newspaper by very long, if at all.  Similarly, an advert referring to the Fourth National Exhibition isn’t likely to have been produced too many years after the event either – perhaps just in the following year or two.

So, our seemingly rather uninteresting but admittedly much-liked embroidery picture had a few secrets hiding away from us.  Far from being European, it’s Japanese and made in Nagasaki by an embroiderer called Imamura who was active around the latter years of the 19th Century and turn of the 20th Century.

This all serves as a reminder to us not to make easy assumptions about anything we come across. Some things are worth questioning, perhaps sometimes because they have appealed for some reason, and perhaps sometimes because they have not.

We’d be keen to hear from anyone who might have any additional information about Imamura in particular or late 19th or early 20th Century Japanese embroidery in general. Until a few months ago we knew nothing. Now we know a little bit more, but would certainly appreciate being able to expand our knowledge further.  If you might be able to assist or if you’re interested in purchasing this item from us, then please do get in touch. We would love to hear from you either way.

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Over recent months, we’ve come to know Mark Lowe of Mark Lowe Lighting in Nottingham, and it’s proved to be a very beneficial relationship already. Mark produces meticulously designed and crafted bespoke lamps and has a keen eye for design and style as well as undoubted practical skills with wood and wiring.  And so it has happened that Mark has been helping us with a few of our items to modify them or bring them to a point where they can be offered for sale.

You can view a few of the recent lighting projects which we have asked Mark to assist with below, but there will be more on the way in the coming weeks and months, notably some more lamps and some furniture re-purposing which we are very much looking forward to completing, thanks to Mark’s help.

In the case of the Bisque Doll’s Head, Mark added the custom re-purposed wood base, wiring and bulb holder in line with our description of how we envisaged it being repurposed to a usable and decorative lamp.  The mustard Prova wall light needed some attention to its wiring and fittings as well as a new base – made of sustainable English Chestnut wood – to convert it into a desk lamp.  Finally, the Pifco lamp required a much longer flex and some attention to its switch housing to make it a much more practical and sound piece of lighting.

We are very glad to have this connection to a craftsman such as Mark and we are certain our collaboration will be fruitful.  You can view more of Mark’s work,  including bespoke standard lamps and table lamps made to order at his website, Mark Lowe- Lighting, which you’ll find here: http://marklowe.co.uk

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We should be upfront with you and say that none of us is really au fait with militaria and it’s just not an area that we ever intended (nor intend) to get into. We actually came into possession of this item rather by accident since it was part of a job lot containing many items won at auction.  We didn’t think much of it when we first saw it and put it to one side thinking it was not very remarkable at all – a rather nondescript badge which held little appeal to us at face value.  But when we started to do some research we realised it was actually a scarce item with an interesting background.  The Food Flying Squad was part of the Womens Voluntary Service which was set up just prior to the start of the Second World War. It continued to provide food to those in need after the war, responding to major civil emergencies, such as during the flooding of the East Coast in 1953.

The short video clip below shows the work of The Food Flying Squad:

So we learned quite a lot from this item which we considered to be an “also ran” kind of thing, but most of all we learned not to dismiss anything until you’ve properly investigated it.

We have also been busy sourcing items to bring to you and are pleased that we have added some lighting and furniture recently and will be adding to both of these categories very soon. In the meantime, we’ll hope to unearth as many interesting items as we can…!

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Specifically, we will be adding a large number of table and drinking ephemera which are notable for their weirdness and kitsch value and a range of re-purposed items which will launch a new shop category. We’re particularly pleased with a group of charming bird illustrations from a 1930s book which will be cards which you or your recipient can choose to frame or display “as-is”. A sneak preview of these can be found below:

In the meantime, we’ll get back to cleaning, photographing, and preparing the other items we have for your consideration! And, no doubt, hunting for more interesting items!

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