Lenk's book 1945

This book, by Torsten Lenk, is an early, definitive expose on the origin and development of the flintlock. The second image is a random page - all are equally beautifully illustrated in detailed (if black and white) photographs. In fact, some of the designs on the old guns pictured are worth study even if you aren't into old guns. If I were into tattoos, there are at least half a dozen motifs that I would adopt for personal ink. But I'm not, and remain ink free to this day.

It's Fossil Friday #8

These little bits found on the beach near Calvert Cliffs, Maryland are reportedly the plate-like teeth of a long gone skate or stingray. I'm not sure about that myself, but it's plausible.

Grommet

This is an old brass grommet that I found on Cape Henlopen at the same site as this and this. There's a lot of history in that area, so I'd be hard pressed to say that all of these items were from the same source, but they were from the same location (within 10 yards of each other), so who knows?

Another older painting

This is one I did many years ago of an old Delaware Bay pilot's schooner (I forget the name). I sold this off about 12 years ago, and I don't remember who bought the damn thing. This is a scan of an old Polaroid (remember those, kids?) that I had lying around.

Bottle from the Bay

Here's another soda bottle found in the Delaware Bay. This one was rolling in the surf at Woodland Beach. See the barnacle scar near the bottom?

Esquemeling's Book

Pretty much everything we think we know about pirates of yore comes from one of two places - the fictional Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson and The Buccaneers of America by Esquemeling. Treasure Island had a lot of apocryphal tidbits that have been picked up by popular culture (e.g. parrots, peg legs, and eye patches, and the "Arrrgh" that we all love so well). On the other hand, this Esquemeling dude was a pirate contemporary that lived and sailed among them.

This edition is from 1893, and it lists the author as "John Esquemeling", even though his name was "Alexandre Olivier Esquemeling". The text is identical in all other respects to A.O. Esquemeling writings on the Internet Archive, so I'm wondering is this isn't a typographical error of an Anglicanization in order to make the book more acceptable to English speaking readers...

Djembe 1

Here's a little hand drum of African origin. Known as a Djembe (pronounced "Jem-Bee"), this is an hourglass shaped drum similar to the Middle Eastern Doumbek, but can be tuned using the lacings. This is a modern version, with a small (8") diameter head for travel.

At some point, I'd love to host a drum circle with all of my friends and hand drums...