LEGLESS REAL LIFE
Mary Bennett, 80, from Derby, and her husband David have an unusual collection...
Trawling the car boot sale, I’d bet no-one else was looking for what Iwas.
My husband David and I are more niche collectors –and we have one very specific theme in mind.
Throughout all the various bric-a-brac, something caught my eye.
Apipe tamper –it was the shape that piqued our interest.
Narrowing from asmooth thigh to aslender ankle and foot – shaped like aleg.
Perfect!
Having been collecting legshaped items since April 2009, David and Iwere always on the hunt for more.
Previously we had collected silver sugar tongs, but they were difficult to store and took up too much room.
So, we sold the tongs and decided to look for something a little more unique.
And visiting an antique fair, we found two tampers in the shape of legs.
‘This is something different,’ we said. ‘Let’s do this.’
We keep an eye out for leggy treasures
And not long after, Ifound that I already had anail file in the shape of aleg at home.
David had given it to me in 1962 when we started courting –you could say we already had our foot in the door!
And from that moment on, David and Ialways kept an eye out for leggy treasures.
Over the years, we’ve amassed 181 pieces .
Our favourite is aperfume bottle in the shape of aleg.
We have no idea of its origins, but it is beautiful.
We have bottle openers, vestas, corkscrews, pipe tampers, pocket knives, boot hooks, pipes, nut crackers and even a toothbrush, too.
And recently we picked up alegshaped opium pipe.
The items are made from a variety of materials, from silver and wood to ivory and bone – although we don’t purchase ivory anymore. Finding abone piece is always great and they are real works of art.
Our oldest piece is apipe tamper that dates all the way back to the Georgian era.
We’ve found some cheekier items, too.
Trawling an antiques fair, we found aset of three French corkscrews, all depicting alady with her stocking at various heights –the lowest indicating if she was alady of night or not.
So of course, we got the m
