Locality, luck and family ornaments

Abstract

Collecting ornaments is a popular pastime in Britain. This paper looks at cheaply produced collectables and the meanings and values attributed to private collections by their owners, who lovingly tend to them. Fieldwork consisted of ethnographic research conducted in 2004 and 2005 among people aged 60 and over in a town on the South Cheshire–North Staffordshire border, close to the heart of British ceramic production – Moorland, Wedgwood-Waterford, Argyle, Royal Stratford.1 In particular, the paper focuses on so-called ‘lucky’ ornaments and figurines, especially the ‘whimsy’ – a small fanciful object or trinket created by a glass-blower or potter – and on how the rituals associated with collecting help to maintain the family and its social relationships.