Cindythings Chrystal Dunninger Museum Page 10

This is a fun little piece! It's a four-part miniature decorative folding screen. It has a wooden frame set with some kind of translucent plastic or natural-material panes you can see light through, decorated with glued-on coral and green flowers and leaves, made of precious stones maybe? I'm not sure. I think this could be Indian. It reminds me of life-sized screens Dunninger collected and kept in his house, and the ones I've admired a million times at my favorite Indian restaurant, Royal Taj. The sections are held together by string hinges and it is completely sturdy and folds and unfolds like a dream. It stands up on its own just fine. It measures 3 1/8 inches / just under 8 cm tall, by 4 7/8 inches / 12 1/4 cm wide extended; each panel is 1 3/16 inches / 3 cm wide. I've never seen anything like it.

This is a pale green milk glass ashtray that says in dark green: PAM-PAM, and PLACE de L'OPERA - PARIS - CHAMPS-ELYSEES. It has a groove for a cigarette on each side, and measures 4 inches / 10 cm diameter, by 1 inch / 2 1/2 cm tall. It's such a fun piece, a lovely color, and has an exciting air about it. I'd like to think it came from an exciting nightclub, no doubt swiped in a gold beaded evening bag! But from what I can find out, the Pam-Pam was a cafe or American restaurant on the Champs-Elysees with a terrace where people liked to meet circa the 1940's to discuss resisting a certain fascist dictator, eat hush puppies, and sit under umbrellas, but don't hold me to it. I was only in Paris once for five minutes and if I ever get to go out to eat there, I certainly won't go anyplace American!

This is a lovely little object. A round white marble plate with carving around the rim, with an inlaid mother of pearl picture of the Taj Mahal at its center, embellished with black drawn lines, probably ink. It measures about 3 3/4 inches / 9 1/2 cm diameter, about 3/8 inch / 1 cm thick. The back shows that it once had something stuck to it, so perhaps it was hung upon a wall. I wonder what Chrystal thought of her visit to the Taj Mahal--and did she think of Dunninger? I believe she went after their split, on her own.

This is a beautiful little almost-square white ashtray with a shield, castle, and golden rampant lion at its center, the word Heidelberg, and leaves at the sides of the shield. Beautiful gold plating appears in the design and trimming the sides, with a beautiful floral pattern etched into the gold. It's a bit thick to be called porcelain, so I'll just call it china. The back has a circle printed on it, inside of which appear the letters RA and maybe 2, Bavaria, and 16. It has a cigarette rest at each corner. A nice little souvenir that was kept in beautiful condition. The back still has a little putty on it, maybe put there to keep it from falling off a shelf? It measures just over 3 inches / 7 3/4 cm square, and about 3/4 inch / 2 cm tall. A tiny thing, but one that no doubt brought back fantastic memories of the romantic castle and charming old streets there. I wonder if Chrystal went to the castle's gardens by night and saw the castle and its old town all romantically lit up, like I want to do someday?

This is a pretty little square cream china ashtray just like the Heidelberg one in form and size, with a super nice heraldry design on the front. It has a shield within a shield, a series of four keys, and fleur de lis against red and blue grounds, with a castle at the top, and leaves twining around it. A very clean and pretty design with nice primary colors. It has an attractive gold plate line of trim around the edges and cigarette rests. The red is obviously enamel paint. The word Berchtesgaden is featured below the design. On the back, Eversberg and Bavaria with a sunburst above them are printed in gold. This one may be just slightly thinner than the Heidelberg one. It's nice, isn't it? I wonder what Chrystal looked at in Berchtesgaden? The Bavarian Alps offer delightful scenery, and there's a castle that's still used, and salt mines, but Berchtesgaden is also loaded with Hitler landmarks--his mountain aerie, places he and his top guys lived, Gestapo headquarters...some of it is gone now, leveled, for obvious reasons. I wonder what Chrystal thought of it all?