Saturday, March 27, 2010
RANDOM WW2
Andree Virot Peel, heroine of French resistance, dies at 105
Andree Peel, a member of the World War II Resistance who is credited with saving the lives of more than 100 Allied airmen in Nazi-occupied France, has died at 105.
Peel died at a care home in Bristol, southwest England, facility manager Sherry Kitchen said Monday. She did not disclose the cause of Peel's death on Friday.
Born Andree Virot in France in 1905, Peel was running a beauty salon in the port city of Brest when the Nazis invaded in 1940. She joined the Resistance, initially distributing clandestine newspapers.
Under the code name Agent Rose, she helped dozens of British and American pilots escape from Nazi-occupied territory onto submarines and gunboats, and also guided Allied planes to secret landing strips.
Captured by the Nazis, she was imprisoned at the Ravensbruck and Buchenwald concentration camps. She later recalled how she was being lined up to be shot by a firing squad when U.S. troops arrived to liberate the inmates in April 1945.
After the war, Virot met her future husband, British academic John Peel, and moved to England.
She celebrated her 105th birthday in February with a party at her care home attended by friends and dignitaries, with a cake in the colors of the French tricolor flag.
"She was an absolutely incredible lady. We shall miss her amazingly," Kitchen said.
Peel was much honored for her wartime bravery. She was thanked personally by Winston Churchill and awarded the French Legion of Honor, the King's Commendation for Brave Conduct and the Croix de Guerre.
She recorded her remarkable story in an autobiography, "Miracles Do Happen."
Her husband predeceased her. The couple had no children. She is survived by members of her extended family in France.
RANDOM 341 OBJECTS
2 Fine GLASS DECANTERS, 1 BLOWN w HOLLOW ACORN STOPPER
Over the past fifty-five years I’ve probably bought and rummaged through as many estates as most. (I haven’t bought socks in decades.) But one thing always surprises me. It’s what people have accumulated by the carload. I bought one last year and found 41 Bibles. Then there was another puzzlement when I began sorting this one. I’ve never seen so many decanters. They were everywhere and not a bottle of booze or wine in the house. (Naturally, one of the heirs may have cobbed the bottles. There’s one of those in every family.)
So here are two beauties. The wide mouth bottle in engraved and it never had a stopper. I’d call it a water bottle. The other one is as elegant as that shapely 23-year-old girl in the little black dress and a string of pearls. You’ll want to have it, that’s for sure. (The decanter. Not the girl . . . although.)
So here are two beauties. The wide mouth bottle in engraved and it never had a stopper. I’d call it a water bottle. The other one is as elegant as that shapely 23-year-old girl in the little black dress and a string of pearls. You’ll want to have it, that’s for sure. (The decanter. Not the girl . . . although.)
The water bottle is 10 ½”, heavy, and it flares out toe 5 ½” at the base. See the acid etching?
But there’s the one you’ll lust after. It is blown glass – footed – and is proportioned just exactly right.
The stopper is a really sweet, expertly crafter piece of hollow blown glass.
GUARANTEE: If you don’t love these, you probably have brain weevils.
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Friday, March 26, 2010
RANDOM 341 OBJECT
NUART Art Deco SEATED NAKED LADY Statue on MARBLE BASE-$48
She has all the right things in all the right places. Even from the back she’s as sexy as all get-out. But in spite of that I guess old age has taken over my brain. All I can think is, “Man, I’ll be her butt is cold sitting there on the metal pedestal.” Makes me want to go ask her to sit on my lap.
She stands 7 1/2" tall and is mounted on a white marble base measuring 7 1/2” by 3”. There are only some very minor surface scratches, and there are no chips in the marble.
She stands 7 1/2" tall and is mounted on a white marble base measuring 7 1/2” by 3”. There are only some very minor surface scratches, and there are no chips in the marble.
If you aren’t totally thrilled, I send a full refund including your costs for reshipping. How’s that for a guarantee?
If you aren’t totally thrilled, I send a full refund including your costs for reshipping. How’s that for a guarantee?
