A tiny gentleman

[nid_dabeille]

I have come to realize that I love the word "tiny."  If something is described as tiny, I can't help but be attracted.  Just now I found this on ebay in the medical and scientific antiques category.

RARE, TINY, UNSIGNED, COMPLETE SCREW BARREL MICROSCOPE
A very rare and early screw barrel microscope with ivori (sic) simple lens on ornate brass arm and 4 numbered and capped objectives. Although unsigned, it is most assuredly from a fine 18th century maker. The flared simple magnifier eyepiece, the roping of the brasswork, the capped objectives, the shaped forceps, etc. would indicate that this was a tiny gentleman's pocket/field microscope of the highest quality. The bone sliders are numbered, the caps and objectives match, there is no damage to any part of this set including the forcep tines and black/ white disc. The threads and spring of the barrel (5/8 " or 20 mm. in diameter) are flawless, as are the optics. All beads of the objectives are intact. The case too, is flawless and is composed of black sharkskin with push button closure. It measures only 118 x 58 x 26 mm. (4 5/8 x 2 3/8 x 1" high) and every space is filled! An asset to any serious collection.

Heehee, tiny gentleman.  Misplaced modifier.  But still, TINY!  (Like Stephen's tiny sneeze!)  I also like the word "little."  And doesn't that description just sound so loving? 

And speaking of ebay scientific antique instruments, look at this, nautical people:
AN 18TH CENTURY KIT OF NAVIGATIONAL INSTRUMENTS TOOLS.

Pretty pretty.  And I love the porte-crayon and the ruling pen.  I wonder if the ruling pen fits into the porte-crayon?  It looks like it must, and that would be handy.

ETA:  And don't miss out on your chance to own:
19 antique human glass eyes!!!!!!!
They're beautiful.  And creepy, I have to admit.

Comments

[saibrrmen.livejournal.com]

Ooh, Lauscha eyes! I was just looking at their site yesterday. Though

IMPORTANT MESSAGE: Your wife called a few minutes ago. She wanted to tell you that you can spend as much as you want to win this historical kit. She said that it has far more value and more potential than all the trash you have been buying in eBay. Kisses, she said.

Well that's struck it. That message written in a big compelling blue font changed my whole mind. Kisses back to you wifey. I'm bidding on this. And early.

LOL, I thought it was going to be a bad joke, along the lines of 'Oy, yer mum called last night. She said...'

[grace-poppy.livejournal.com]

Why were you looking at their site yesterday?

[saibrrmen.livejournal.com]

A bit of lulzy drama in the ball joint doll world. Someone was selling their eyes for $36 a pair, which is pretty reasonable for high quality glass eyes, but she was giving the impression she made them herself, or that she was running her own eye-making business. Someone found the Lauscha eyes site and thought 'Ooh how strangely familiar... and yet 50% cheaper...'

[grace-poppy.livejournal.com]

So Lauscha makes doll eyes? Do they still make human eyes? Or do you think the ebay seller was mistaken and these are actually doll eyes?

The ball joint doll world kind of scares me, or weirds me out.

[saibrrmen.livejournal.com]

They make doll, human, plushie bear, & cuddly toy eyes. Lots, and quite high quality. I think those are human eyes 'cause they're shaped different to the doll ones-- more Stick these into yer irregularly shaped eyesockets, than Hmm these are perfectly round and would stick into a doll.

I can understand that. People who play with dolls can be freaking insane. o_o I'm there for the artist bjds, really. Most bjd collectors do it to endow their dolls with parts of their personality, which I don't dig. I'm more into it because of the small-but-not-so-small-as-to-be-unpleasantly-fumbly things, and the mechanics and range of the joints. :D TINY THINGS! *runs after them*

[grace-poppy.livejournal.com]

I suppose there are some weird dollhouse people, too. I recently got a dollhouse magazine that had an article on miniature medical scenes, and some of the creators had extremely elaborate ideas of the scenarios, even if there were no dolls present and none of that action visible at all. Not just things like "This is the sick berth of a doctor named Stephen" but "This is the sick berth of a doctor named Stephen and he's about to treat a wounded patient who got shot in the arm while he was trying to climb up a rocky hill hunting for elk when their ship was wrecked on a rocky island, and his friend accidentally shot him and then felt really bad and carried him down to the base camp and then the Surprise came and rescued them and the guy's name is Jimmy and he used to be a whaler because he wanted to earn enough money to marry his childhood sweetheart back in Nantucket but now he's been pressed into the navy but he's American of course so he's secretly going to try to undermine the British navy but he doesn't know that Stephen is a spy and Stephen already knows all about his little plan so he's going to keep him incapacitated for the rest of the voyage until they meet another American ship and then they can hand Jimmy over to them, and he'll be happy and go home to his Mabel and get married and have three children named Seth, Reuben and Naomi." (Sick berth: has table, chair, lamps and some tools.)

But yeah, I've seen people on flickr post their bjds, and they're very beautiful, but the people seem to develop whole soap operas around them. It seems a little odd, for adults. Plus I don't really like the way the dolls look, sometimes. I want them to look more natural and less anime.

[saibrrmen.livejournal.com]

LOL. Happens much the same with bjds... they're alright, I suppose. That was my problem with them too-- 's why I'm making my own, since I can't find one to fit my specifications. I don't like so much the asian aesthetic but there are some like the Soom/a> ones which are rather realistic. Tho more realistic they get they apparently turn into fashion dolls-- I think right between the Asian-Western aesthetics line are the Limhwa (http://www.limhwa.com/tanelfmano.htm) dolls which look like something Bernini sculpted crossed with dem big-eyed Asian scaries. Depends on which company really. Ooh, and Dollstown. Mm.

The soap operas kinda weird me out... I suppose I want the best of both worlds. Dollhouse miniatures with BJD posability and joints. (http://dollsoom.com/shop/step_submain.php?b_code=B20071101112844)

[grace-poppy.livejournal.com]

Bernini? Why Bernini?

Yeah, they do kind of take themselves too seriously. "I wonder if Julienne loves me or Hubert? Woe is me. I shall write a sonnet." Hmm, no wonder people develop soap operas. The dolls practically make them do it.

Also, the dolls are rather large and a bit too possessive, as in becoming possessed by an evil spirit, and evil dolls of horror movies. Tiny poppets never become evil. *eyes the bjds watchfully*

[saibrrmen.livejournal.com]

You know, I have no idea. I have a sculptorcrush on Bernini. Might have a part in it.

There are smaller ones :D they come in different sizes. 70 cm I think is the biggest. Smallest I've seen... size of a quarter.

BJDs: *eye you back*

[grace-poppy.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I've never liked Bernini much. I kind of don't like Italian baroque, anyway. All that ecstasy of emotion. Of course he's brilliantly talented. He's just so gushy, though.

Sorry, but this made me LOL.
http://www.limhwa.com/charitymano.htm
Also - "Doll Artist to the Stars" made me lol too. Do the stars really need their own doll artist?
"Oh Tiffani, I need a doll but I don't know who to turn to!"
"Well, Justine, I always go to Gregg Ortiz. He makes dolls for LOTS of stars!"

[saibrrmen.livejournal.com]

He's so AMAZING! Have you seen his statue of Longinus? HOLY CRAP, CLOTH! Of course it was done in four pieces (Michelangelo: Pah. I speet on your four-piece monstrosity.) I suppose I don't look so much at the religious-ecstasy part 'cause I'm not religious anyway. Doesn't bother me :D

LOL, don't apologize. A lot of the doll stuff makes me lol. It's why I lurk more at Den of Demons (sensible doll people forum--oxymoron?) than Den of Angels, where most of the lulz originates. Plus, adorable Engrish abounds.

[grace-poppy.livejournal.com]

Well, yeah... cloth... He's definitely amazing. He's just so flamboyant, such a show-off and over-the-top for me. Like the mannerists - I dislike mannerism because I just want to tell them "Ok, ok, I get the POINT. Now will you do it like NORMAL now?"

Not that he's mannerist in that weird abstracting way, but - I dunno. Art seems to come and go in waves of emotional outbursts and intellectual serenity - the linests vs the colorists, the Poussinists vs the Rubenistes, medieval-renaissance vs. baroque-roccoco, Dutch vs. Italian, reformation vs counter-reformation, neoclassicism vs romanticism... and I usually tend to lean toward the more reserved, intellectual, calm classical sides.

[grace-poppy.livejournal.com]

And I'm going to bed now. Bye!

[grace-poppy.livejournal.com]

PS - Plus it seems funny that the dolls can change their hair and eyes at a whim. :D PLUS, it's funny when people take photos of them like they're actual people or fashion models. I suppose I take pictures of my poppets in poses, too, but that's more to be silly than artistic and beautiful. ("What a poignant moment as poppet Jack stares out to the sea with longing, dreaming of his Sophie on a distant shore.")

[saibrrmen.livejournal.com]

Haha, I rather like the hair-eye changing, actually. It's handy because you can change the entire look of a doll without having to buy another one, and another, if you get tired of it. (And you know me. Ten second attention span.) LOL I'd like to see poppet Jack doing that :D poppets are wonderfully silly. BJDS take themselves too seriously. They think they're real.

[grace-poppy.livejournal.com]

And poppets can fit in one's pocket, so it's easy to whip them out for a snapshot on the beach. (Mine traveled everywhere with me during my UK trip, though I didn't take them out of my handbag very often.) It's a lot harder, and a little more obsessive, to cart six or seven bighuge dolls to the beach and arrange their hair and clothes and all.

Of course, it WAS flickr, specifically for photos, so maybe that doll group just attracted a certain type of bjd lover. The obsessive kind who wishes she were a magazine photographer of real people. (And has a boyfriend named Jimmy who's off at sea trying to earn his fortune...)

[saibrrmen.livejournal.com]

Oh that is handy. You can do that with the smaller bjds but they're annoyingly more baby-like than mature-tiny. And RE carting things about-- depends on the person. I wouldn't take out my one (well that's mostly for fear of exposing to the unprepared public the horrible glory of bad sculpting) except maybe if someone specifically wanted to see it. Plus, fear of stealing. And of being called out as immature.

[grace-poppy.livejournal.com]

Don't you have more than one?

[saibrrmen.livejournal.com]

Why no. I shouldn't like to have more than one either. I just have a load of disembodied heads :D the first one I made (that you might be thinking about) failed, so I reduced it to slush, to use in newer-bigger-shinier doll's torso.

[grace-poppy.livejournal.com]

PPS - Suddenly I'm enamored with this ebay seller:
http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZjamesdjulia

and these big giant creche figures (http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?sofocus=bs&sbrftog=1&dfsp=1&satitle=creche&sacat=-1%26catref%3DC6&sadis=200&fpos=27405&sabfmts=1&ftrt=1&ftrv=1&saprclo=&saprchi=&seller=1&sass=jamesdjulia&fsop=1%26fsoo%3D1&coaction=compare&copagenum=1&coentrypage=search&fgtp=) are AMAZING. I'd have so much fun making clothes for those. It wouldn't have to be period-accurate (because nativity scenes are always so whimsical in costume) and you could just go to town with all the braid and beads and ribbon and velvet and silks... Embellishments are the best part of sewing. You make a bunch of creche peeps and I'll dress 'em, ok?

[saibrrmen.livejournal.com]

Phoo, straight to the posh auctions, eh? And there I was, looking for a vaguely nice-looking pocketwatch in some shop stationed in Hong Kong.

Bloody hell, those ARE amazing! Fantastic. (lol, melting dress.) You can dress them as soon as I figure out how to carve wood into something vaguely human-like :P good lord, I should've just majored in Art and done with. I'll never figure out everything by myself at this rate. (ooh, look at the very last doll http://www.lotzdollpages.com/creche.html how charming. Reminds me of TEL for some reason.) BTW, I was unaware you made clothes! Examples?

[grace-poppy.livejournal.com]

"Should have" majored in art? You haven't even started college yet, silly. You can still major in art if you want to. (You can even change majors many many times, and don't let anyone tell you you can't.)

Well of course I CAN make clothes. I just choose not to, usually. I'm too apathetic (or antipathetic) about my own appearance to go to all that work just to clothe ME. But I used to make doll clothes. And I loved making costumes in plays.

Aww, that TEL doll is so sweet! I've never seen a sweeter boy doll.

[saibrrmen.livejournal.com]

Hah, that's true. Bit of a problem though as I signed up for all these nice interesting history-focussed classes in my Wot Oi Want'er be Doing In First Year course forms. Oh well... post-grad, if I decide I like it. (Or conserving various things. That looks like fun.)

Ah. Le pouvoir de choix. I care too much, but I'm disorganized :D 's why most of my human-sized stuff comes out looking like a carefully researched pile o'. How do you handle 1:12 sized doll clothes? I can barely deal with 1:3 scale.

[grace-poppy.livejournal.com]

I've mostly glued 1:12 clothes. I tried sewing, but they turned out too bulky and puffy, and it annoyed me because I wanted things to look realistic. I decided I'd rather have them look realistic than function realistically (with seams and hems and closures and the ability to take them off without ripping them up. Which I have done.) But in recent years I haven't bothered with the dolls at all, much, in my dollhouse and roomboxes.

I more made clothes for Samantha, my American Girl doll, you know? That was regular sewing and all.

So you've picked a college?

[saibrrmen.livejournal.com]

Yeah, and getting the cloth to fall correctly I imagine is a nightmare, too... can get away with regular cloth on a 1:3, at least. Eep. Ripping up clothes. I like wee buttons. What happened to your dolls? Still in your parents' house?

You have an American Girl? Those slightly frighten me. (I think it is their backstories. o______o)

Picked, applied, and booked airline tickets for. Hobart and William Smith Colleges. It's alright I suppose. (Liberal arts, with a sailing class. SAILING CLASS)I was planning on something else but that fell through at the last minute. *shrugs* SAILING CLASS!!!!!! oh god i'm excited