In my previous post I wrote about my dressing up as a nun for Book Week in 1999...well I came across some old photos a little while back which I put aside thinking they could be used in a future post...so that time is now :-)
The story starts in December 1971 when, for some reason or other, I bought a cookie jar for my soon to be Sister in Law...the jar was in the shaped of a monk! I have no idea why I felt that it was a perfect Christmas gift for her...but it had quite taken my fancy. I had found it in Myer's city store here in Brisbane, where I had purchased most of the gifts on my list. At the last minute I kept the cookie jar for my self and bought another gift for Marlene...Now from here the story become quite bizarre and you might 'wonder about me'? lol
Then a few years later my mother found more cookie jars in the same range in a local gift shop...and she bought both another monk and a nun! Then my MiL bought me a nun cookie jar in her home city of Melbourne...before I knew it, I had a bit of a collection going without any real effort from me! Lol. And here are some photos from circa 1973-4...it's alright to snigger/laugh uproariously at these photos because The 2014 me certainly is! Lol
Eventually after extensive renovations at our home in 1979-80, my 'monastery/convent collection' as friends called it, eventually found a home on the ledge beside the new internal staircase...
Here is DD2, aged about 2 and the lineup of the collection can be seen in the background...
In 2000, I moved out of the family home taking very little with me...and certainly not the collection! In 2003, after settlement, I took over the house again to prepare it for sale, and the collection had gone with my former husband to Victoria. He claimed that he had bought and paid for all of the cookie jars???? So they were gone and that was that...realistically I didn't really have room in the house I now lived in. ( One beautiful German-made jug in the shape of a monk remained in the house for me to recover, as it had been in a cupboard and had not been found)
But unknown to me DD1 was searching for replacements and one Christmas, she presented me with a box, and in that box was a monk cookie jar which she had found on Ebay. Dear DD1 was to go on to find another one a year of so later.
I then found out that she was trying to find a nun jar...I was a bit concerned as these cookie jars were quite expensive and I didn't want her spending so much...so I pre-empted her and bought one myself on Ebay from the US...the jar wasn't expensive but the postage was! lol. So once again I had a Monastery/Convent collection! They 'live' on top of the buffet hutch but during a recent dust and clean session, I took a photo of them 'posing' on the dining table! lol
The little nun was bought on a visit to Rome in 2008 and that jug previously mentioned is on the left.
(I have seen these jars in Antique shops and prices were around the $75 mark...a big difference from the $5.99 I paid for that first one in 1971)
I also explained how in 2003 I had 'lost' all but a German made 'monk jug', when my first husband took the collection claiming it was his????
I explained that I bought the nun so my daughter didn't spend far too much money trying to track one down to buy for me. The nun cookie jars must be fairly rare, because if you find any, they are quite expensive. (The little nun in the photo was bought in The Vatican City)
And inside was this little fellow!
