Odd Item

[asakiyume]

cucumberseed reported the other day on Jeff and Ann Vandermeer's call for 150-word submissions for the Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities (still accepting through September 7, by the way, in case you're interested). People post their submissions as comments to the blog post asking for submissions; the Vandermeers will choose the ones they want and contact the authors by e-mail.

Anyway, though, the result is that for the time being, you can read about tons of interesting odd items at that page, and I found the following item, which delighted me with its extreme oddness, morbidness, humor, and... plausibility, actually. I believe in this thing.

Tom Underberg says:
August 23, 2010 at 2:47 pm
AMERICAN NIGHT QUILT. A notable example of a hand-stitched night quilt featuring unusual subject matter: smallpox, penury and death by hanging. This cloth quilt (circa 1850) was purchased during the 1902 decommissioning of Lake Covenant Church near Oostburg, Wisconsin. ‘Absolutely no return’ is written on the receipt. Night quilts were worked only after dark and required completion before a newborn’s name day. Panels warded against the illustrated misfortunes, but each additional panel diluted the overall efficacy. This piece features exquisite detailing. In clock-wise order, the quilt’s applique panels show: a boy, covered in small sores, alone in a bed; a man at night, his felt pockets turned inside-out, standing in a fallow field; the same man hanging from a leafless tree. On the right side of this panel, three women weep; on the left, a preacher wearing a black felt hat watches. The fourth panel is missing. – Tom Underberg

Can't you just see it? Oh the stories it must belong to!

Comments

[orrin.livejournal.com]

Yeah, one of the big joys of that call is reading through all the wonderful oddness that gets submitted!

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I have to remember to keep going back until the end of the submission period!

[bogwitch64.livejournal.com]

How deliciously macabre!

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

My feeling exactly!

[mguibord.livejournal.com]

What's really neat about this entry is that it's so weird but seems quite plausible too.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

That's exactly it: I can truly believe in this.

[peppergrass.livejournal.com]

I totally agree. This was fantastic! I wish I was a quilter now - I want to make one just like it now.

[avalonestel.livejournal.com]

Wow...tbh I believe this might exist, too. People make/do crazy things, and I wouldn't put it past some weirdo to have made something like that.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

As I was saying to deponti below, it *is* grim--and I think in real life the things that are made to protect kids are never so graphically horrible--but the instinct is definitely real!

[deponti.livejournal.com]

NOOOOOO! This is too grisly and awful for me. Yeugh, imagine using this quilt! I would be beset by nightmares.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I grant that it's a macabre sort of humor--and I completely understand being turned off by it. I think what amused me was the juxtaposition of the protective desire (lots of cultures make little protective ornaments or clothing or quilts, etc. to ward off evil) with the grisliness of the things that you're protecting against.

--But yeah, it would be creepy to look at!

[marmota-monax.livejournal.com]

I read through all the entries. I had thought of something to add before I began reading, but the cleverness of the other submissions have made mine entirely inferior and I think I shall not contribute.

John and I were once given a private tour of a cabinet of natural curiosities up in the Northeast Kingdom. It was entirely fantastic, and appropriately dark, dusty, and poorly lit! We began our own cabinet shortly thereafter, a dedicated room in the larger house we used to rent, but now it's all in boxes because we don't have the space for it in our tiny house. Alas!

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

What kinds of things were in the real cabinet? Often real things are as appealing as made-up ones, and odd in their own, real-world way. Interesting bottle caps, strange toys, etc.

And please reconsider submitting your own entry!

[marmota-monax.livejournal.com]

Let's see...it was over a decade ago so the memory is a bit dusty too.

The cabinet was a two story structure with a central atrium. All corners and walls were filled with old display cases stuffed full of natural wonders. Preserved birds of all kinds, including passenger pigeons, mounted animals, collections of tropical butterflies, local and distant artifacts, dinosaur trackways, fossils, Native people's items, tiny shoes for binding feet, I do believe there may have been a shrunken head, many bottles and jars of preserved oddities and specimens; the entire effect was extremely Victorian.

I remember the person giving the tour was very concerned about the future of the collection. We ended up not buying a farm in the Kingdom, so I never followed up on the cabinet's fate.

[marmota-monax.livejournal.com]

I FOUND IT! It's the Fairbanks Museum in St. J.!

http://www.vtliving.com/museums/fairbanksmuseum/index.shtml

You MUST go and bring your family. It's worth the long drive. Trust me.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Oooh--how totally cool! I will definitely take the family up there! Thanks you!

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

Wow. That one is good Americana. I don't say that often.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

It totally captivated me. I can just see the world in which it exists.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

I could totally believe in that quilt! It is macarbre, but plausible.

To be honest, I did briefly believe in it because I didn't read your post carefully enough at first. :)

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Best compliment ever, for the author :D

[rose-lemberg.livejournal.com]

This is awesome - but honestly I saw a real quilt that was in this vein (African-American), and one that was even more macabre. That second quilt will be forever emblazoned in my memory. I would have bought it, doom and all, but it cost 25 thousand dollars.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I *knew* there had to be things like this!

[rose-lemberg.livejournal.com]

I am very much into old quilts, and have seen some pretty amazing ones...

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

So what made the second quilt even more macabre?

[rose-lemberg.livejournal.com]

Oh, Francesca, I am not sure I can describe it. It was a gigantic quilt without backing, with raw threads hanging everywhere, as if the maker completely disregarded the notion craftsmanship... It was a stunning, intense warm yellow and upon it a tangle of giant black snakes... I cannot describe the feeling of raw power, energy, that emanated from this quilt. It was over a hundred years old. I found out that it was quilted by an African-American woman in Louisiana, who lived alone and was known as a witch.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Wow. Really, the macabre wildness of real life never ceases to amaze me. Too, too much.

... seriously, it seems to me my imagination cannot possibly top reality... and I don't think I suffer from a poor imagination.

[redcoast.livejournal.com]

For some reason, I don't want to accept a smallpox quilt.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Yeah, seriously.

[peppergrass.livejournal.com]

This is just brilliant - I agree it's fantastic faux-Americana. I want to make one of these quilts now! Pity I can't think of anything similar I could do in crochet. :(

I love cabinets of curiosities. I have my own humble one of sorts in the top of our hutch. It contains Indian baskets, wasp nests, bits of shell and sea glass, an antique silver spoon, small jars of shells and seeds, seed pods, feathers, ceramic vases and pitchers, a small hammered copper vase, a Maneki Neko cat, an old rusted railroad tie, old square-headed nails, Oxacan figurines, a large bundle of devil's claw pods, an old stoneware ink pot, interesting beach stones (usually dark gray/black with white quarts veins), a bird's nest with two halved robin's eggs and an old stamp, an African doll...and more that I can't remember now. ;)

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

What a fantastic list. I can see them all--now I want to touch them!

[peppergrass.livejournal.com]

Maybe one day you will venture down our way....? One never knows. :)

[tltrent.livejournal.com]

Oh how I wish I could have invited to that antho. My new novel has a Cabinet into which my MC sneaks and discovers the decay at the heart of her world. I kept pix of cabinets from everywhere near me the entire time. Must think of a micro-piece for this--thanks for posting it! :)

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

What a great notion--the inside of the cabinet showing her the heart of her world.

Do try to come up with some good micro submission! (I'm sure you will have no problem--it will be more a matter of trying to choose just one!)

[b-oki.livejournal.com]

i believe!

but i could not own it, that is for sure. great for a museum item.

i love rummaging thru old tins or drawers full of curiosities. especially at my grandparent's farm house and their shed. and the way your fingers and hands smell and feel when you're done rummaging. the scent of "unidentified old and odd".

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Yes, my sister and I loved looking through my grandmother's attic. We found a case of beautiful goblets that we thought should be on a queen's table, a chamber pot, and my grandmother's old dresses--one of which my sister wore to a dance. It was a flapper dress complete with fringe--amazing.

Love what you say, too, about the smell and feel of oldness that clings to your hands.

[therinth.livejournal.com]

Wow -- that's perfect.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

And look up at grayrose76's comments--there really are things like this!