The Little World

I went to the Toy And Doll collector’s fair yesterday at my local exhibition centre. I’ve been to many events at this building and am impressed with how convenient it is, how well suited it is to the average small display, and how ugly the interior is. It was not always this, but someone with  the aesthetic taste of Blind Pew decided to paint half the bricks white and leave the other half as a variegated pattern. It is neither white nor brick red, but altogether horrible.

The walls before.

The walls now.

They can really only improve the situation by completing the white paint job and accept a sterile look to the place. A salutory lesson for the home painter…

Anyway, I attended the Doll and Toy, as much to measure out the tables for next year’s WASMex and to see if there are any 1:76 scale cars for my airfields as to see the rest of the stalls. I daresay the same sellers had the same stock that they have had before and I passed the same faces. I walked with a more tightly closed purse than heretofore as I have a definite vision of what I want and the discipline to concentrate on that.  But, as with any hobby or interest in Perth, you never can tell what you will see and what opportunity will be presented that is truly ” once-in-a-lifetime “.

That’s the thing about Perth. We’re traditionally the end of the earth for anything and it has engendered a mindset amongst many of us. We know that oddities will fetch up here long after they have disappeared from the rest of the planet – books, antiques, toys, models, coins, etc. If we know our subject and keep an open eye and a reserve purse we can sometimes find marvellous things.

Of course, there are always the shonk merchants – the wheelers and dealers who sell broken goods at mended prices or overprice unsalable stock in the hopes of twisting a fortune out of the unwary. I’ve been bitten a few times, but never twice with the same teeth – and I am now at the point of being able to make a memorable shindy whenever I detect a con-game a’playing. That’s be worth the price of admission, if nothing else.

In any event, the tables are suitable but the toys and dolls wer not. Fine things, but an entirely different Little World than mine.