Recently Medina Bookshop launched an imaginative scheme to raise funds for their new book ‘100 Treasures And Curiosities From Carisbrooke Castle Museum’.
They offered up the 100 objects for sponsorship, with sponsors having their name listed alongside the object in both the book and the museum as well as many other benefits.
Fascinating objects
A fantastic selection of objects were on offer, from a pair of Princess Beatrice’s bloomers, to an Iron Age necklace made of wolf claws, and the majority of the objects were snapped up, however a few remain unsponsored, including one particular extraordinary object: a statue of a bird of prey with the face of Adolf Hitler.
A political comment on the Nazi invasion
This unusual terracotta figure was commissioned by Roy Russell of Stenbury Manor, near Godshill, during the Second World War.
It depicts an eagle with the caricatured face of Adolf Hitler, sinking its talons into a corpse symbolising Poland, a political comment on the invasion of that country by Nazi forces.
Sculpted terracotta brick clay in his spare time
The sculpture was made by Harry Pritchett (1875-1954) a fascinating local character who entered the family business Hillis Brick and Tileworks in Cowes when he was 19, an enthusiastic archaeologist he was fascinated with ancient civilizations and when he started sculpting from the terracotta brick clay in his spare time it was often gargoyles and grotesques that he created.
Islanders might already be familiar with another of his sculptures, the terracotta plaque showing one of the Carisbrooke donkeys in the well house wheel, the ‘logo’ of the Gould Hibbard Randall headquarters that was originally on the ‘Charter House’ building in St Thomas’s Square before being removed and incorporated into the new M&S building.
Become a sponsor
Medina Books are hoping that they can find sponsors for this and the other few remaining items before going to print with this book that will be sold to raise funds for Carisbrooke Castle Museum, an accredited museum and charity that cares for an extensive collection of artefacts connected to Island life over the last 1000 years.
Sponsors choose an artefact for £125 (or take a lucky dip for £100) and receive a range of exciting benefits including:
- A limited edition copy of the book
- A sponsor’s credit line in the first edition of the book and on the object’s display label for the year after the book’s publication
- An invitation to a sponsors’ launch event at the museum
- Membership of the Friends of Carisbrooke Castle Museum for one year from the book’s publication date
- Sponsorship gift certificates are also available.
Book today
Those interested can head over to the link below to browse the collection and make a purchase, or preorder a copy of the book.
100 Objects – Medina Book Shop
Find out more
To keep up to date on the progress of the book, follow the Carisbrooke Castle Museum and Medina Bookshop Websites.
Our thanks to Medina Publishing for sponsoring for this feature. They and other businesses and organisations taking paid promotion enables you to continue reading OnTheWight for free.
