Art Treasures of the Castle5000 Collection: "The Box"

This masthead is based on the shipping box for the 1950s "Art Treasures of the World" art book series.

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The Box
by Mrs.5000
Wooden Box filled with lots of stuff
One-of-a-kind item

Gift, c. 2004.

The Box was given to me by Mrs.5000 around ten years ago.

Although I mentioned it once several years ago, I've often asked myself, "Michael5000, how come you've never done a proper post on The Box?"  Well, as I took it outside to take these pictures, I remembered why.

It's really, really hard to photograph well.

But you get the idea!  What we have here is a triptych, my friends.  It is, I would go so far to say, reminiscent of late mediaeval devotional alters that wealthy folks could carry around with them so they could worship on the go.  Except, it doesn't really have much in the way of religious content.

There's lots to explore, including the mysterious drawers on the bottom.

And since it's done with mirrors, if you stare into The Box, it sometimes stares back at you.

So, that's kind of what The Box looks like.

Except it's about a million times cooler, in real life.

Art Treasures of the Castle5000 Collection: "Hráči karty karetni hry"

This masthead is based on the shipping box for the 1950s "Art Treasures of the World" art book series.

The big blue box over on the right is my treasure case.  I keep many of the smaller items from the Castle5000 Collection in it.

We moved it to a new room quite a while ago, and, as you can see from the photo, I have been extremely slow to set it back up so that the art can be enjoyed properly.  Partly this is because I am slothful.  Partly this is because I've felt like it would be a good idea to catalog our collection of inexpensive but nifty objets d'art before I set it up again.  In retrospect, the second reason seems a little ridiculous, but there it is.

Anyway, let the cataloging begin!

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Hráči karty karetni hry
by Vojtĕch Omasta and Slavomir Ravik
Large Deck of Cards with Czech text and illustrations
Mass-produced object

Gift, c. 2009.

"Hráči karty karetni hry" is Czech for -- hell, how would I know?  But it's the title of this deck of oversized cards that was sent to us from the Czech Republic by our sister-in-law, an authentic Czech person, who found it in a bookshop. 

We have it on her authority that the text is about the history, rules, and strategy of games.

It is a cleverly formatted book.  I choose to conceive of it as and treat it as an art object, and that goes a long ways towards making it "art" in my conception of the term.

Sometimes I wonder if it would fit as well into the category of "art" if the text was not in a language with exotic letter combinations and diacritical markings.  If I could read the text, and it was poorly written or even merely bland, it would probably really kill the effect.

But as things stand, it is a pretty cool item!