21 Feb 2021 No 1. The Microtibialist of Derby
First things first. This post and the next 3, have already been published on my Bird man of Allestree Blog. But now that I have set up this separate blog for Leg collecting, I have copied all 4 into this new blog, and will be deleting them in the birding blog. This is just for completeness!
It will mean that if you wish to be e-mailed each time I send a new post, you will need to re-register for e-mail again, this time in Alleslegtree.blogspot.com. The old one, which will still stay there, but dormant, was Allesbirdtree.blospot.com .. subtle change, yes?
So.....welcome to readers of my new (titled-) blog. Let me
elaborate and explain what this blog is all about.
Some of you will know that I have an unusual hobby, collecting pocket size antiques and
collector items in the shape of a human leg. For clarity, that means the area
including the foot and the leg to just above the knee; I do not include items
that are shoes only so that rules out for example snuff boxes. Nor items of an
animal nature such as fish shaped nail files, or dog styled nutcrackers. There
will always be exceptions but the essential factor it must be a leg. Again with
a few minor exceptions, out of the 151 items in my collection, none will be
bigger than 6 inches. And for clarity, prosthetics are not included!!
I describe myself as a Microtibialist, which derives from “Micro”
meaning small, and “Tibia” meaning leg =
A Microtibialist – a collector of small
legs. I have been collecting legs since 2009 and in February 2017, exasperated
with being called the Leg man by antique dealers, I wrote a letter to the Daily
Telegraph asking for suggestions what I, as a leg collector, could be called.
The published letter produced 8 to 10 replies, none of which I considered
suitable. Amongst the suggestions were Lego, Legotee, Leg maniac, all of which
would probably infringe lego copyright, and Legologist and Legkneemania were
too much of a mouthful. After
brainstorming with my wife, we came up with the name I liked and I use today,
the Microtibialist – the small leg collector.
In answer to the question, “Why collect Legs”, this is an
article I wrote in 2017 which explains the history.
It all goes back and originates from an event over 50 years
ago.
In 1962, whilst holidaying in Weymouth, because I guess she
needed one, I bought my wife this metal nail file, in the shape of a leg. She
always kept it in her handbag, and on many occasions when she took it out to
file a nail, someone would say “that’s an unusual nail file”.
Wind forward to about 1996, when I was collecting Silver sugar tongs. That came
about when in the course of emptying the contents of the house of a deceased
relative, I came across 2/3 pairs of tongs. I saw them as attractive and worthwhile silver
items to collect, and so I started collecting sugar tongs at antique fairs and
outlets. It was not very scientific and pretty was probably more important than
potential.
I peaked at a maximum of 94 silver items, 6 “interesting”
mechanical sugar tongs, and 23 sugar shovels (mainly continental).
In 2009 I realised that I needed to be a bit more selective
and auctioned a good number of the cheaper silver tongs. At the same time, with
the auction proceeds in my pocket, I visited a prestigious antique fair at the
Birmingham NEC, and saw 2 pipe tamper legs on one stall. It struck me this
would be something different to collect, so I used the tongs proceeds to buy
the 2 Ivory legs, somewhat influenced by the seller who said they had both come
from the same owner.
And that is how it started. By the end of the first year
(2009), partly thanks to my wife saying, “you might as well include my nail
file in your collection”, I had 8 legs, and at the end of 2011 the collection
had reached 25. To-day the count is
151.
I try not to duplicate a style or size or material, so one
brass nutcracker is enough. But Pipe Tampers (and incidentally NOT tamperers as
even some antique dealers incorrectly call them!!) come in many different
materials, different patterns (many hand carved), different sizes. Some of the
bone or ivory tampers are said to be carved by WW prisoners, but this is not
provable. I do have a few Ivory items, but I have stopped buying them, because
I don’t know how anyone can prove that they are dated pre-1947.
In 2014 I appeared on
the Antiques Road Show at Wentworth Woodhouse (Near Rotherham) with some of my
collection. I had tried to get on the
show in 2013, but the waiting time was so long that I gave up. So, when the producer saw me the second time
in 2014, he immediately said “Ah, you’re the leg man”, and when I saw him in
2015, the year after I was on the show, he said the same again.
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