Unconsidered Trifles: Images of the everyday for modellers and artists

[Not Jeremy]

Just into stock, a new Wild Swan book from noted modeller Geoff Kent which describes and shows through colour photography the fantastic variety of details from the past that can still be found in the British Isles of today.

 

Selected for inspiration to model and sketch, Geoff has recorded a mind boggling variety of styles, designs, building material and subjects.

 

Geoff hopes that his book will encourage us all to go out and look at the world around us, recording what we see for posterity before it is too late and hopefully making models of it too!

 

ISNB 9781912038657 64pp All colour softback produced on to high quality art paper and with a spine. £14.95.

 

Available to purchase now from my website and also now making their way to numerous other stockists of Wild Swan books.

 

Simon

 

 

[Captain Kernow]

Received my copy the other day, thanks to Simon's excellent service.

 

This is a rather lovely, thoughtful and reflective book, full of interesting photos and information.

 

Highly recommended.

 

[corneliuslundie]

It has prompted me to think along the same lines, though not a book and generally smaller things. 

Jonathan

[justin1985]

I got a copy of this from Titfield the other day (great service, as always!)

 

I found it interesting, but I couldn't help thinking it was a bit of a missed opportunity to do something broader. Reflective is a good description of it - nothing wrong with that - but it's definitely a personal account. The vast majority of the examples are from the Welsh borders region, for example.

 

I guess I was hoping for something closer to the lines of Brunskill's "Handbook Vernacular Architecture" but for the kinds of bits and bobs that "Trifles" looks at - e.g. I'd like to have seen a full chronology of phone boxes and post boxes, rather than just one or two interesting examples. (there is a full chronology of petrol pumps in photos, but that seems almost incidental in that all could be found around the Marches). 

 

Scope for a future project for someone, perhaps?

[uax6]

For phone boxes there is a Shire Album written by Neil Johansson (The former BT archivist) that gives a very good run down for the average man on the street/modeller. 

 

Andy G

[phil_sutters]

I looked into my photo files to see whether there were phone boxes on display at Amberley museum. While they have a large communications hall with many different designs of domestic phones and engineering vans etc. there are only one or two boxes. However it reminded me that the site is packed with hundreds of unconsidered trifles, both inside the various buildings and in the spacious surrounding site, in an old chalk pit. It is well staffed, largely by volunteers demonstrating a wide range of skilled crafts and trades, but it is a very relaxed environment in which to wander. If you want to consider trifles that is a good place to visit. I have been there with grandchildren five times since 2003. There is something for all ages there.

[t-b-g]

I think that the book, rather than being a universal coverage of the subject, is intended more as an encouragement to search out and record such things before they vanish from sight for ever.

 

No such book could cover the whole country in depth without running to many volumes.

 

There have been a few times when I have seen something and wished I had my camera with me and next time I have gone to see it, the item has gone.

 

Geoff just happened to usually have his camera with him. It is true that the book is weighted towards a certain geographical area but that is down to where Geoff lives and his interests in carrying out research for Black Lion Crossing.

 

The book is more of a byproduct of that layout project based on what Geoff had already recorded.

 

 

[micknich2003]

One of the issues of the short lived "Modeller's Backtrack" contains a very in depth coverage of telephone boxes.

[Pacific231G]

6 hours ago, t-b-g said:

 

There have been a few times when I have seen something and wished I had my camera with me and next time I have gone to see it, the item has gone.

 

Geoff just happened to usually have his camera with him. It is true that the book is weighted towards a certain geographical area but that is down to where Geoff lives and his interests in carrying out research for Black Lion Crossing.

 

The book is more of a byproduct of that layout project based on what Geoff had already recorded.

 

 

That's what makes smart phones so useful. The best camera is always the one you have with you.

[t-b-g]

2 minutes ago, Pacific231G said:

That's what makes smart phones so useful. The best camera is always the one you have with you.

 

I agree entirely.

 

Geoff was a bit ahead of the game as he was photographing such things before the smart phone was invented.

 

I once spent a lovely summer, in the early 1980s, travelling round most weekends with a friend, photographing all sorts of stuff. Gates, signals, signalboxes, lamps, all the sort of stuff that was being swept away by modernisation. Yet I rarely pointed the camera at non railway subjects.

 

Nowadays, if you see something of interest, it is much easier but the idea of Geoff Kent taking photos with a smart phone does raise a smile. He doesn't really "do" technology!

 

 

[corneliuslundie]

As I said above, the book really inspired me. Surely it is about prompting us to model the scene outside the railway boundary in more detail - in the sense of the little details which make a difference between, say, Surrey and Shropshire, or Shrewsbury and Manchester. Hence the reason I started the "Little things" thread. It was never meant to be a catalogue, more a thought provoker.

(I can recommend an authoritative book on manhole covers if anyone needs one! Of course it is out of date.).

Jonathan

[phil_sutters]

Another book in a similar vein - prompting one to be more observant and aware of small features in one's surroundings, is 'letters from england' (lower case as on the cover) by Peter Ashley. It is an English Heritage pocket book, illustrating and providing information and comment on signs and lettering. Examples are from a wide variety of trade, transport, memorial, local authority and architectural origins.

A contact on my photo-sharing site quoted an architectural commentator saying "In his architectural guide to London Renzo Salvadori remarked on the superior design of the fonts on British signs. He could have adduced this one as an example, I think." He was referring to this photo of a memorial plaque that I had refurbished. http://www.ipernity.com/doc/philsutters/50542838 

 

As with other unconsidered trifles, once you start to notice such things you can't stop yourself.

Edited April 21, 2021 by phil_sutters

[1ngram]

Is there an authoritative book on builders plates?