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# 29
Hidden treasures.
To some people I collect junk. Pieces of paper(board) not meant to be kept and collected. True ephemera. I consider reused playing cards as real treasures. Some items I get for free, for most of them I have to pay. Still the monetary value is irrelevant. In Dutch we have a say: "Het is net wat de gek er voor geeft". I try to translate it for you: "It is just what the crazy man likes to pay for it".
Last week I visited the Dutch collector Bonney Branttinga in his old farm house in Wildervank, the Netherlands. Actually it is not a home, Bonney lives in a self created museum. Never in my life have I seen so many records, videos, ash trays, cloth, cups, books, jars and other items with playing cards or playing card suits on them. Bonney even has a gambling machine, bed linen and paintings with playing cards. It is an amazing collection!
In my ranking of pleasantly crazy collectors Bonney is second to myself. We first met two years ago in Belgium, at the annual Day of Playing Card Collecting, organized by The National Playing Card Museum in Turnhout. At the time my exhibition was in that museum and Bonney introduced himself by saying he was very excited to see my collection. What a way to start a friendship. Bonney told me he had something special for me: an old cupboard.
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Trying to restore it Bonney found fragments of playing cards behind one of the hinges of the doors. For most people this was just old rubbish, but Bonney kept the pieces and offered them to me, together with the cupboard. Here below you see how the playing card was found.... |
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This early 20th century Dutch playing card has been folded in four to be used behind a hinge of a cupboard. The carpenter accidentally removed to much wood to fit the hinge. To adjust the door the space behind the hinge had to be filled with some material and the playing card did just fine.
Wildervank is a small community up North in the Netherlands. It took me two years to find time to visit it. Well, I can recommend it to all of you! The cupboard was not as pretty as I hoped for, but the card fragments are great! A true treasure.
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The fragments found in the cupboard are similar to four fragments of playing card found behind a lock of an antique chest in the church of Sainte-Madeleine in Farges les Chalons, France. See the pictures here..... | |
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French playing card |
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I have not seen
the chest myself so I do not know exactly how this 18th century French
playing card was used behind the lock, but according to the holes I presume
the folded card was mounted between the lock and the wood. Probably to solve
the same technical problem as with the Dutch cupboard. Interesting is also
that the card have been reused before it was used in the chest. The
unprinted back shows a text in Latin in manuscript. Still have to find
somebody to help me to translate it. The playing card is of the
Burgundy type, maker unknown. Farges les Chalons is situated in the Burgundy
region.
This picture of the church Sainte-Madeleine in Farges les Chalons I copied
from the internet. In 2005 it was taken by Claude Beaufils and I found it on
a site with all pictures of churches with bell towers in France: http://clochers.org
Talking about collections...
If you would like to
experience Bonney's passion and museum collection, you better e-mail him first: bonneybrat@hotmail.com
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