Doing the Subcontinental

Two charming gentlemen from the subcontinent have recently moved into the Great Hall.

Aware of the ban imposed by Angus Council on any friends visiting me, they have obligingly developed a proficieny in the "statue dance" game where you have to freeze like a statue when the music stops. Those subcontinentals certainly know when to stop when "The Continental" stops or the Council arrives.

The gentlemen were until recently employed by a film and TV props company called the "The Eccentric Trading Company" where their superhuman ability to imitate guildwood candelabra was nurtured. Unfortunately, the HS2 ploughed though their gaff of 30 years in the north-west of London and they found themselves unemployed. I picked them up somewhat ignominiously in the resulting clearance sale.

The gentlemen are 8'6" tall and the back of my van is only 7' so I was unsure if I could transport them even with my passenger seat folded forward. It was going to be a tight squeeze. The saleroom told me they did not come apart.

Anyhow, when I did collect them, I found that there is both a "build-in" plinth but a 2' high detachable faux-marble pedestal. The lady in the saleroom had obviously got confused between her plinth and her pedestal, and to be honest I don't know the difference myself. :-)

The pedestals looks to have been hand-made by the props company to raise the gentleman to even greater height for their screen appearances. This is ideal for the tall ceiling of the Great Hall.

I was under no illusion that these were antique black-a-moor torchières, as I know enough about the antique market that these would be unaffordable. I have seen somewhat costly carved Chinese copies, so assumed this is what they would be. However, the stamp on them says Italy and they are clearly hand carved wood which pleased me no end, as they are based on a Venetian design where presumably such objects originated.

The gentleman are rather reticent about revealing their filmography, so if anyone recognises them from the cinema or TV, please let me know.

When I was fact checking this blog entry I found that subcontinental is correct even though Africa is a continent, because this is a way of referring to Sub-Saharan Africa, though not a standard geographic term.

What I did not manage to fact-check is the name of that childhood game where you turn around as people try to creep towards you and catch them moving, when they should be standing still in best weeping-angel tradition. What is the name of that game?