I mentioned in my Valentine Day’s post my collection of model houses and then promised in comments there to illustrate. Here is a slideshow of about half of my collection (I’m currently moderating its growth on account of not having space for display), with brief notes on where the houses were acquired. As with most of my interests, the collection started as a device to commemorate the places that we travel to, but there are now non-travel-related acquisitions as well. Too bad that in many locales, this type of collectible can often not be found.
My mom collects the Lilliput Lane houses. They’re incredibly detailed.
Those are cool, Ilya. I’ve always thought it would be fitting to pick up the same sort of souvenir from all my destinations, but I’ve never been able to decide on the right category of thing to get. I collected shot glasses for a while — they seem to be pretty ubiquitous and are often quite pretty and/or clever — but I got tired of that. They started to seem too pedestrian.
I do have a fairly large plaster model of Westminster Abbey that I received as a gift a year or so after I was in England. And I brought back a lovely stein from Germany. But honestly my favorite souvenirs seem to be things that I can actually use in daily life — a sweater I bought in England, a scarf I picked up in Munich because I was freezing… that sort of thing.
We buy everyday items too, Jason. A breadbasket from Italy, table glasses from Loire Valley, a wool blanket from Cotswolds, etc. To my mind, the unfortunate side effect of these mementos is that they eventually wear out or break. Which is why I always wanted to have a “display-only” line of souvenirs.
The houses are actually my second (or third, if you count the fact that I keep the corks from the bottles of wine that I open) travel collection: I have around 200 keychains from various places that I visited, although I’m getting cooler to them as the time goes by.