Hare Today - Gone Tomorrow
Wee, sleekit, cowrin, tim’rous beastie,
O, what a panic’s in thy breastie!
Thou need na start awa sae hasty,
Wi’ bickering brattle!
I wad be laith to rin an’ chase thee,
Wi’ murdering pattle!
Well Robert Burns the bard of Scotland has been somewhat disrespected by English barbers. A first edition of Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect had to be rescued from the said barbers barbarity after 50 pages of the very rare first edition were used to clean razors and torn out from the book. The horror of it! I’ve illustrated that horror with an ice interpretation of Munch’s Scream from the Ice Hotel in Kirkenes on the rRussian border with Norway.
The missing 50 pages were ripped out by the owner of a barber shop in Shrewsbury in, who used them to clean his razors. A visiting Burns enthusiast saw the book and bought the tome in the late 19th century, after spotting it in the shop. Known as the Kilmarnock Edition the book of poems was put on display at Dunfermline Carnegie Library and Galleries in Fife. Burns visited the next door Abbey Church which Burns visited in 1787. Only 612 copies of Burn’s book were printed in 1786. It is thought that only 84 survive.
The copy of Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect was once owned by a Mister Alexander Dick in 1790 was displayed with other material from the collection, which consists of a total of 1,700 bits and pieces museum keepers like to call artefacts, now that’s an arty fact. In 2019, Christie’s sold a copy of Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect for £56,250 so there’s money in history, that’s for sure.
And there’s money to be saved in our quick-fire sale that’s on at the moment, so take advantage of us and grab some bargains. And with this gorgeous creature its Hare today and gone tomorrow. It’s the Winter Hare from Royal Crown Derby. This Hare features beautiful winter foliage of Jasmine, Hellebore, Holly and Mistletoe around its sitting body.And it has 22 carat gold detailing on the ears, nose and feet. With my abacus I reckon it’s got £63 off, and that’s not to be sniffed at.
