04-26-2020, 09:07 PM
So much interesting stuff!!! Sorry guys, I'm having troubles with keeping up with my own photos, so I fail to comment most of the time, but you're all doing amazing job finding these items!
#16 - a purple doll / toy
![[Image: 3156f7f6959419180e1899be73892d16.jpg]](https://i.pinimg.com/564x/31/56/f7/3156f7f6959419180e1899be73892d16.jpg)
A small selection of my purple dolls. I knew I didn't have a purple Pullip / Groove doll, but this made me realize it on a new level. I need to fix that!
WARNING
The rest of the post is going to be a lesson about Czech/Czechoslovak history yet again, sorry about that, seems like I can't help myself. Feel free to skip the rambling!
#17 - a house number
Fun fact - European house numbers are usually quite high up, so I had to ask my mom for help, she always held the doll for me, it would be hard to hold the doll high up and take the photo at the same time (I have small hands, I need them both to handle my phone camera).
That is also one of the reasons the dolls are in focus, but the signs aren't. The other being the sun shining in the wrong direction, so I couldn't really see what I was doing.
![[Image: f23c0ae6170015c42c0bbae2e8fd6c19.jpg]](https://i.pinimg.com/564x/f2/3c/0a/f23c0ae6170015c42c0bbae2e8fd6c19.jpg)
The blue and red plates are the regular house numbers, but Prague has a large amount of examples of another house marking system - house signs. House signs can be seen all over the world, but Prague is unique in how many of them are here. They've been a thing since early medieval times, most of the preserved ones are from 17th and 18th century. Like the one on the pic. This is 'dům U dvou slunců' (yeah, our system of putting caps in names is crazy), I guess the proper translation would be The House of Two Suns, but more literal translation would be The House by Two Suns. It's in Nerudova ulice (remember the J-Doll?), and it is the house where Jan Neruda, the poet after whom the street is named, was born and created some of his most important works. The house itself was built in rennaisance, probably in place of an older gothic house (judging from the floor plan that was typical for gothic houses), but it was renovated in baroque style between 1673-90, so it's hard to tell anything specific about the older phases. The sign is from the renovation time.
![[Image: edfbe977ccecf510d3e7b169c456cd4d.jpg]](https://i.pinimg.com/564x/ed/fb/e9/edfbe977ccecf510d3e7b169c456cd4d.jpg)
One more, this one is 'dům U zlatého klíče', The House of/by the Golden Key. It has similar history as the previous one, but the current form of sign is from 1844.
I want to do more with house signs, but I don't now when I'll get to it. I will also, of course, return to Nerudova street (Nerudovka for short) and take more proper photos, it is Prague's most famous street, after all.
#18 - something from another country
![[Image: c7c0bdefa22782f43247bf42dc90e466.jpg]](https://i.pinimg.com/564x/c7/c0/bd/c7c0bdefa22782f43247bf42dc90e466.jpg)
The two 'certificates' in the background are from our family vacation in Mallorca, where we, among other things, went for a trip in a hot-air balloon and in a submarine (30m/98ft deep, you guys!) and each of us got a certificate with our name and the date of the trip as a memento. They're some of my favorite memories!
Origins 2pack dolls were Mattel Shop exclusives, and Mattel wasn't willing to ship outside of US, but I got them anyway, thanks to an extremely kind fellow collector from MH Arena who got them for me, and I'm very grateful to have them in my collection.
The little butterfly is a souvenir from Vienna's Schmetterlinghaus. It's a magnet - I actually took the photo before today's batch appeared, so this time, it's a souvenir, but it will appear again in the role of magnet.
The rest of the stuff is and at the same time isn't from another country. History lesson incoming!!!
You see, because of various political circumstances, this country went through an awful lot of changes. I myself have been a citizen of three states without ever moving - Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, Czech and Slovak Federative Republic, and finally, Czech Republic.
The red book is about Czech gothic architecture and was written in Third Czechoslovak Republic, which was our country between 1945-48, after the WW2, before the communist coup d'état. It was published in 1948, I'm not sure which part of the year, so it could be either from Third Republic or Czechoslovak Republic, which was the communist state until 1960, when we became Czechoslovak Socialist Republic.
From Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, specifically 1982, is the purple book, it's Czech translation of Alexander Grin's Jessie and Morgiana, one of my favorite novels.
The fake bisque figure is from what used to be this country, but isn't anymore - Slovakia.
If you read all this, you have my kudos!
#16 - a purple doll / toy
A small selection of my purple dolls. I knew I didn't have a purple Pullip / Groove doll, but this made me realize it on a new level. I need to fix that!
WARNING
The rest of the post is going to be a lesson about Czech/Czechoslovak history yet again, sorry about that, seems like I can't help myself. Feel free to skip the rambling!
#17 - a house number
Fun fact - European house numbers are usually quite high up, so I had to ask my mom for help, she always held the doll for me, it would be hard to hold the doll high up and take the photo at the same time (I have small hands, I need them both to handle my phone camera).
That is also one of the reasons the dolls are in focus, but the signs aren't. The other being the sun shining in the wrong direction, so I couldn't really see what I was doing.
The blue and red plates are the regular house numbers, but Prague has a large amount of examples of another house marking system - house signs. House signs can be seen all over the world, but Prague is unique in how many of them are here. They've been a thing since early medieval times, most of the preserved ones are from 17th and 18th century. Like the one on the pic. This is 'dům U dvou slunců' (yeah, our system of putting caps in names is crazy), I guess the proper translation would be The House of Two Suns, but more literal translation would be The House by Two Suns. It's in Nerudova ulice (remember the J-Doll?), and it is the house where Jan Neruda, the poet after whom the street is named, was born and created some of his most important works. The house itself was built in rennaisance, probably in place of an older gothic house (judging from the floor plan that was typical for gothic houses), but it was renovated in baroque style between 1673-90, so it's hard to tell anything specific about the older phases. The sign is from the renovation time.
One more, this one is 'dům U zlatého klíče', The House of/by the Golden Key. It has similar history as the previous one, but the current form of sign is from 1844.
I want to do more with house signs, but I don't now when I'll get to it. I will also, of course, return to Nerudova street (Nerudovka for short) and take more proper photos, it is Prague's most famous street, after all.
#18 - something from another country
The two 'certificates' in the background are from our family vacation in Mallorca, where we, among other things, went for a trip in a hot-air balloon and in a submarine (30m/98ft deep, you guys!) and each of us got a certificate with our name and the date of the trip as a memento. They're some of my favorite memories!
Origins 2pack dolls were Mattel Shop exclusives, and Mattel wasn't willing to ship outside of US, but I got them anyway, thanks to an extremely kind fellow collector from MH Arena who got them for me, and I'm very grateful to have them in my collection.
The little butterfly is a souvenir from Vienna's Schmetterlinghaus. It's a magnet - I actually took the photo before today's batch appeared, so this time, it's a souvenir, but it will appear again in the role of magnet.
The rest of the stuff is and at the same time isn't from another country. History lesson incoming!!!
You see, because of various political circumstances, this country went through an awful lot of changes. I myself have been a citizen of three states without ever moving - Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, Czech and Slovak Federative Republic, and finally, Czech Republic.
The red book is about Czech gothic architecture and was written in Third Czechoslovak Republic, which was our country between 1945-48, after the WW2, before the communist coup d'état. It was published in 1948, I'm not sure which part of the year, so it could be either from Third Republic or Czechoslovak Republic, which was the communist state until 1960, when we became Czechoslovak Socialist Republic.
From Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, specifically 1982, is the purple book, it's Czech translation of Alexander Grin's Jessie and Morgiana, one of my favorite novels.
The fake bisque figure is from what used to be this country, but isn't anymore - Slovakia.
If you read all this, you have my kudos!