Sunday 9 December 2012

A real Ramble about a Chair



Invalid chair, Europe, 1850-1890


Unlike modern wheelchairs that have four wheels, this chair has three: two large front wheels and one small rear wheel. This means the patient was unable to wheel the chair themselves. They would have had an assistant. The chair is heavy so presumably they would not have gone very far or very fast. This elaborately carved chair dates from the late 1800s. It is made of wood with a sprung padded seat. It was donated to the Wellcome Collections by Liverpool Royal infirmary in 1928.


It's nearly Christmas
And the Christmas cards are starting to arrive. How about this one from Jude, a friend with whom I went to college. 


She's put a lot of effort into that!

And some Postcrossing Christmas postcards are arriving like this one from Alesya in Belarus.


Ivy
Ivy isn’t pestering me at the moment – she must be asleep downstairs somewhere.  Or working in her bookshop…


 You can tell she's a cat for this household!

Leontien
You may remember Leontien, an amazing woman who is fighting cancer, from Flowers for Leotien and Leaves for Leotien that I've done earlier on this blog.  Nancy, who has been such a good Internet friend to Leontien, has suggested we think about sending her a card this holiday time.


Leontien's address at Four Leaf Clover Dairy can be found here.


 Loch Droma

A misty Loch Droma on the A835 during July last year when GB and I passed on our way to Ullapool for the ferry to the Isle of Lewis.



6 comments:

  1. Not being able to use your legs must still be difficult enough these days, even with all the modern technical aids available. Must have been even worse back in "the good old days", though...

    Have to smile at that bookshop. Of course she needs her own...

    I love the creative Christmas card!

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  2. And thank you very much for your lovely card, John! I looked long and hard for a smiling person - at least I think it is a person - for mine. The invalid chair looks a bit creepy to me! but then so many of the things in the Wellcome do!

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  3. I wondered why having only one rear wheel precluded it from being propelled other than by someone pushing it. The wheel would really need to swivel however it was being propelled. Apart from being so heavy, it has the extra rims for the user to propel the chair with. It doesn't appear to have a handrail for someone pushing it to use either. Odd.

    Was the Ivy Bookshop in Hay-on-Wye? All the ordinary local bookshops seem to be slowly disappearing.

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    Replies
    1. No, not Hay on Wye, someone sent me the picture of the Ivy bookshop. I suspect it was simply off the web, probably in the USA.

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    2. I googled it. The bookshop is in Baltimore, Maryland.

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  4. Handmade cards are so special. Yours is simple and beautiful.Two years ago I made some for members of my family. I truly enjoyed doing it.

    ReplyDelete

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