Tchotchke Favorites

An interesting coincidence: A friend was visit-ing last Friday and he noticed this duck I have on display and he was marvel-ing at its intri-cacies. I told him that I had bought it at a store at the South Street Seaport in lower Manhattan approximately 20-25 years ago. This store, Pavo Real, carried various works of Mexican crafts, jewelry and art with some clothing accessories thrown into the mix. It was almost like a museum and, I might add, way out of my league price-wise. Eventually my desire to own overcame any financial good sense and I bought this little duck. It is a limited edition by Sergio Bustamante and it is paper mache at its absolute best. He is more famous for his large, sometimes life-sized, creations but I am still really happy to have a tiny piece of his heritage. The coincidence mentioned above comes from having received a catalog from Pavo Real yesterday with a “We Miss You!” sticker on the outside. As far as I know the only Pavo Real store left in the U.S. is in Boston and the catalog seems to feature mostly women’s somewhat exotic fashions (still costly). Whatever, the catalog and the coincidence is the goose that prompted this blog.

The duck is still one of my favorite tchotchkes and just about the only one that stays on display 24/7. The only other item that stays put is a wonderful scrimshaw that I bought in Sausalito, Calif. in about 1971. The little etched character had a name when I bought it but the intervening years have cast doubt on what I think I remember it to be; Ragnar the Viking. It’s a walrus tooth so not from an endan-gered species (just in case you were going to get snarky on that score). Ragnar is 3.5” high, including the bronze base. The duck is 5” x 7” and is highly shellacked paper mache.

I have a lot of, well, I’ll admit it, junk scattered around the apartment (some stored out of sight in a special “décor” cabinet) but they are all keep-sakes and gifts and travel souvenirs. All of them have sentimental value for me and are, thus, priceless.