Poles Apart

Forgive the detour from space toys again, but after I posted an article on my other blog, Land of the Thunderbird, I have managed to find a few more excellent examples, including this beautiful mahogany version (above) and also a catalogue page from manufacturers of the resin replicas, Boma.

BOMA Mfg product display

Terranova also remarked about the poles in the British Museum, which I was lucky enough to see a few years back during a brief visit. Liverpool's World museum also has an outstanding example which is situated near the main entrance.

Poles in the British Museum, London

 The pole suffered some damage during the May 1941 blitz, during the second world war, when Liverool suffered a four day onslaught a the hands of german bombs. Countless treasures were lost, including may items from the Egyptian gallery and much of the natural history collections. The pole, which stood at the centre of the building, still bears the scars of incendiary devices near the base.

Liverpool Museum Haida Totem 2018 and 1932

Liverpool Museum was always a great favourite on my list of things to do as a boy, especially when there was a major exhibition available. I remember queing for hours to see Tutenkhamun and the wait to see the fist sized chunk of moonrock, hidden behind two huge plexiglass domes.

Japanese Spider Crab (Note Totem at left)

 However, possible the most memorable things for me as a young child - probably 5 or 6, were the huge japanese spider crab which dominated the entrance (still there today with the totem pole visible in the reflected background), which to me looked like some huge alien creature. The crabs body is about the size of my head and its legs stretch a good five feet. Seeing this at such an early age, affected me deeply, both from a fearful and a fascinted point of view.

 The most enduring memory of the old museum I have is from the original dinosaur gallery, a narrow corridor of small windows with models in each. Protoceratops wandered a dusty desert, protecting her eggs and a rather portly tyrannosaur stomped a creteaceous landscape in search of prey. But next to these small displays, the corridor opened out into a larger window, probably 6 feet long, obscured by a fine mesh curtain. behind this, in a darkened display with minimal lighting overhead was a huge icthyosaur model. The display was skillfully presented, giving the viewer (as a child) a low viewpoint and the impression of being at the depths of a jurrassic ocean.

Jurrassic Icthyosaur Post Card

The display has long since gone, but the icthyosaur was available in the sixties on a picture postcard, which I had. I contacted the museum recently, to see if they had any images of the display and they kindly supplied me with the above shot as it appeared on the card, from their archives. They also went to the trouble of taking a photograph of the crab in the foyer for me too!

The two deep sea creatures both scared me and fed into my interest for deep sea monsters, but also coloured a subtle phobia that I still entertain today, of swimming in deep water, that as I happily slosh about in the water, a huge dark shape is approaching behind me, ready to bite, or that on the sandy bottom a sharp pink claw is silently manoevering into position to nip off an errant toe.