Category: London
Date: 07.09.2005
Printable version
Inside Out, Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ ONE London, Monday 19 September, 7.30pm
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Welcome to the slightly surreal world of Maurice Collins and his eccentric contraptions.
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He is the world authority on strange devices - antique gadgets - that were designed to make your life a tad easier if you happened to live a hundred or more years ago.
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For more than 30 years, Maurice has been collecting these ever so strange items - from skirt lifters, to cigar cutters, to leg contraptions to hold atlases while driving.
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He started when his son was very little, wandering around Victorian rubbish dumps looking for the ultimate antique lemonade bottle.
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Maurice now has hundreds of contraptions in his Muswell Hill home. It's become an antique parlour and many of his best items have now been lent out to museums.
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But even the collector who has it all still wants something extra, something very strange and rare, a 'deserter tattooing machine' from 1810.
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It is a contraption which stamped the letter 'D' in retractable needles into the deserter's skin.
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The search for this horrific sounding machine takes Maurice to Portobello market where he has been given a tip off. A specialist who deals in antique scientific instruments has one with a price tag of Β£2,800.
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It may take Maurice a while to save up for his dream antique, but it goes without saying that if you happen to have a curious antique contraption, especially an antique tattooing machine, lurking around at home - you know who to contact.
