Histoire de partager mes occupations

Tadam! Mon premier vrai assignment à la CEU a été submitted hier soir. Et je peux vous dire que si j'ai adoré le faire, j'ai aussi détesté le relire cinquante milles fois pour corriger mes fautes, traduire des mots et tenter d'en faire un texte d'un anglais potable. Bref, le principe c'était de prendre un objet puis d'écrire des petits textes par rapport à l'objet, suivant différents points de vue: note ethnographique, lettre à un-e ami-e pour expliquer son choix, un texte pour un livre d'histoire de collège, un mini-essay sur le propriétaire de l'objet, et un mini-essay sur la question de visibilité. Allez, je vous en shroft* deux:

* je ne sais pas pourquoi j'ai eu ce "mot" en tête. Bien sûr ça vient juste de moi. Comme quand Ced' a inaugurée le mot "lard" la dernière fois ;)

The owner

Duncan Dunn went to India at twenty-five years old, in 1896 when he was a young trader. He travelled there without his wife, Margaret, as it was often the case. She stayed therefore in Edinburgh with her mother-in-law, waiting for her husband to come back months later. In 1898 Duncan, finally returned to his home town where he reunited with his wife.  Amongst the many presents he brought back from his stay, there was the biscuits tray, a present for his dear wife. He stayed in Scotland for eighteen months, enough to see the birth of his first son. Then he departed on another travel, to Indonesia this time. Again, it was a quite long journey, and he stayed far from home for another two years. He came back again, with presents, this time a decorated fan for his wife and toys for his young son.

He travelled like that during twenty years, going to far away countries, and coming back to Great-Britain sometimes for two years, sometimes for less. The biscuits tray was one of the many objects he brought back to Scotland as present for his family. When he finally stayed in Europe, at fifty years old, he had first a great pleasure to see all those objects coming from various countries, as there remembered him the exciting life he had  travelling all around the world. But months passing it begin to be hard for him to see those objects, as it started to be a remembrance of the fact that he did not see his children growing up, nor lived a full life with his wife. He decided so, in 1923, to sell those objects, the biscuits tray being between them. He died five years later, in Edinburgh, surrounded by his wife, children, and grand-children.

Ethnographical Note

Wooden biscuits tray with carved flowers
India, 1896
Wood, tin
Heigh: 25 cm, Diameter: 11.5 cm (locked)
Heigh: 25 cm, Length: 46 cm (unlocked)

Donated by Mrs Elizabeth Wolstencroft, previously owned by Mr Duncan Dunn
Inv. OH 754

Closed, this tray is a disc of wood put on a tin base. Each side own delicates carved flowers. A tin clasp allow the opening of the object which became thus tripartite, with the lateral trays fixed and the middle one in suspension thanks to little roulette wheels also made of tin. This piece of work is an example of India's colonial art of the late 19^th century. Made in 1896 in the South-West of India, as the little engraving on the right side of the tray confirm, this object was created with British citizens in mind, and expected to be use as part of a  tea set. The object OH 765, teapot, displayed next to this biscuit tray, is from a similar set.

This was first a possession of a Scot, Duncan Dunn, who bought it as a present for his wife, stayed in Europe. It was then acquired by Leonard Wolstencroft in 1923 during a journey to Scotland in order to be part of his collection of colonial objects. The museum acquired it in 1965, when Leonard Wolstencroft's collection was donated by his daughter, Elizabeth. It stayed in the museum's storerooms until 1987's temporary exhibition Here and Back, about colonial objects. Since that, it is part of our permanent exhibition.

According to J. Steenfort, it is worth noting that this particular object, made in India by Indian craftsmen was designed for a European use and not for natives. He puts forward that this particular fact underline the British idea of colonisation, i.e., paternalism, in contrast to the French assimilation. Steenfort argues moreover that this object is the expression of the urge for British citizen not to change their way of life, even miles away from Europe.

References
James Steenfort, Colonisation and decolonisation, 1993, London press