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> France urged to change heritage law and return looted art to Africa

My First Communion necklace. By Noëllia T.

My most precious object is a necklace. It’s a family heirloom; my grandmother gave it to me for my First Communion. It was a present from her mother for her First Communion. In fact, this necklace has come down four generations. This object allows me to remember my family on my father’s side.

A rag doll. By Camille B.

My favourite object is a rag doll. My great-grandmother was a member of a club for elderly people when she was 80 years old. With her friends, she made rag dolls for the Christmas market, to collect funds for children in hospital. Without telling us anything, she made us an extraordinary doll which she gave us but she didn’t have time to finish it, because she was hospitalized because of stomach pains. During her stay in the hospital, she asked us to bring the doll to her so that she could finish it. But, she died a few days later. I think she knew she wouldn’t live long. The rag doll was probably an object she wanted us to remember her by.

My necklace. By Héléna B.

I’m not a materialistic person, so I’m not attached to objects even if they do remind me of my various trips. Furthermore, I don’t, because of family history, have something I could call a family heirloom as such… But, I do have a particular attachment to my necklace.

It is made up of three pendants:

The first one on the left is a medallion showing Saint Anne. It reminds me of a period of my life. It was a difficult period but I was happy nonetheless. So, a mix of emotions.

The second one in the middle is a triangle with, in its centre, a Celtic symbol. The triangle is a symbol of my beliefs, and I wear a Celtic symbol because I’m fond of Cernunnos, the Celtic God (I bought it in Ireland and it was supposed to be made of silver but actually it is not, so I got "ripped off” but I don’t mind).

The last, but not the least important, on the right, is a spiral. You can see this spiral drawn in most prehistoric caves but, for me, it just represents life, like the spiral of life.

It isn’t a heritage object as such, but it’s a necklace that I wear every day, even when I sleep, so it means a lot to me. I won’t give it to one of my children but I will buy a necklace with a triangle for each of them as my parents did for my brothers, my sister and me. So, it won’t become a heritage object, but a family custom!

My Dad's stamp collection. By Yann M.

My father was a philatelist; he collected stamps as a hobby. He collected more than 600 stamps mostly from Europe, because he travelled a lot throughout Europe. He managed to collect many of his stamps by swapping with other philatelists or by buying them in foreign countries.

I think stamp collecting was a really popular hobby when my dad was young.
He began when he was a kid and stopped when he was about 25.

He gave me his stamp albums to show me that it is important to persevere: his collection needed travel, time, patience and a lot of motivation.

My collection of microfossils. By Raphaël W.

My great-grandfather was an amateur paleontologist. I inherited his collection of microfossils. One of these microfossils is a new species discovered by him and to which he gave his name.

I only met my great-grandfather when I was a baby and I don’t know a lot about him. When I asked my father about him, he seemed happy to talk to me about his grandfather. The collection of fossils reminds my father of his ancestor and it is a link to my own past.

Pocket watch and lace spindle. By Thomas P.

Two objects are very important to me and my family.

The first one is an old pocket watch. It belonged to my great-great-grandfather who was called Louis Sénégas. He was born in 1878 and died in 1934 at the age of 56. He was a bus driver and, in fact, this watch belonged to his father who gave it to him for his 18^th birthday. This object is so old that the chain and the top are missing.

The second object is a lace spindle that belonged to my great-great-grand-mother, Marie. She was born in 1901 and died in 1934 at the age of 34 during childbirth. At this time, women started to sew and make lace at the age of five. My family still has some of her lace creations (like the gift to my great-grand-mother Alice, with her initials embroidered on it).

These objects are very important for my family because they represent our origins.

My quarter dollar collection. By Camille G.

The 50 quarter dollars (in red, the ones I own)

I have chosen to show you my American quarter dollar collection. I started it this summer so it's still quite a small one!

The 50 State Quarters Program was the release of a series of commemorative coins that feature unique designs for each of the 50 states on the reverse (back) face of the quarter coin, from 1999 through 2008. This program was to encourage a new generation of coin collectors. And it became the most successful numismatic (that means the collection or study of currency) program in history. In fact, half of the US population collected the coins! The U.S. Federal Government actually made profit from the collectors taking the coins out of circulation.

The quarters were realized by the US State Mint (the producer of coins in the United States) every five or ten weeks over a year, in the same order that the States signed the Constitution.

Each quarter commemorates one of the 50 states with a design representing the history, traditions, and symbols of each state.

I have six of them right now: Massachusetts, Iowa, Texas, New York, Georgia and Missouri.

To take an example: on the Georgia coin, there is at the top of it the name of the state in capital letters and right below there is the statehood date. In the middle, there is the shape of the state, a peach, and oak sprigs because it is the state tree. And there is a banner with the state motto: "Wisdom, Justice, Moderation". So, each element of the design symbolizes an aspect of the state by representing the symbols of its history and traditions. At the bottom, there is the motto of the United States ("Out of many, one") and the date of the coin’s issue. It's exactly the same design for the other ones.

I found a website where you can buy the quarter dollars, each costs about $3.49: http://www.dollardealwholesale.com/State-Quarter-1999-2008-P-Philadelphia-Brilliant-Uncirculated-Choose-Your-Quarter-_p_160.html

My Love is as Sweet as Candy: An expression of sugar! By Joy Johnson

V & A, Europe 1600-1815, Room 3, case CA7

Although sugar today has become an everyday product, it was not always the case and was very much a luxurious indulgence.  Using the sweet meat bowls above as examples I seek to explore our bittersweet love affair with sugar.

The name sugar still conjures up images of wealth. For example, the term “sugar daddy” (an affluent mature gentleman who lavishes gifts on a young woman) is a case in point. Here we retain the meaning of sugar as a symbol associated with riches. The word is used in commonplace language that tends to be linked with sweetness and love, hence expressions of affection like “sugar baby”, “sugar plum”, and “candy love”.  The song I Want a Little Sugar in My Bowl by the Jazz singer Nina Simone adheres to this concept of illicit desire and offers a flavour of what sugar meant in 18^th century society.

During this period everyone wanted some sugar in their bowl.  Sugar was still a special treat but was becoming more affordable.  Sugar continued to convey an image of delight with sweet delicacies enticing the taste buds; just imagine the “sugar rush”!  The demand for sugar was led by the increased consumption of other commodities such as tea, coffee and chocolate; not to mention the plantation owner’s pursuit for even greater profits.  There was no stopping the sugar boom because the more it was consumed, the more it was demanded.  The largest sugar producer in the world by 1750 was the French colony known as Saint-Domingue (Haiti).

The insatiable quest and desire for both sugar and riches buoyed the transatlantic slave trade. Over 12 million Africans laboured over a span of 400 years to bring sweet bowls of sugar to the table such as the ones illustrated. 

The two bowls shown were made in Meissen, Germany and modelled by Johanne Frederick Eberlein in 1741, but produced in 1765-75.  Bowls such as these were used to decorate the tables of the rising merchant classes as part of the dessert fanfare.

The black figures were portrayed as an exotic component of the sugar bowls. They express how Europeans saw blackness; note the striped cloth around the woman’s head in the form of a headband. This was often a feature on many European crest of arms likened to a "blackamoor", a term used for a black person. The black male figure represents the Native American, but you can only tell he is a Native American because he is dressed in feathered skirt with a feathered head dress.

Meissen was one of the first places to make porcelain especially for the table centre pieces for display during the dessert.  The products were aimed at the French market which was not surprising since France and Britain were among the leading consumers of sugar.

Sugar was believed by many to be good for wellbeing, vigour and even became associated with fertility. Men such as the English Duke of Beaufort in a 1715 publication "Vindication of Sugars” stated that what “preserves apples and plums will also preserve liver and lungs”. While not subscribing to the Duke of Beaufort’s devotion to sugar (he ate nearly a pound a day!) there is no doubt that sugar changed our diet and our love affair with sugar remains to this day.  The British public still eats far more sweets than anyone else on the continent. So, in the words of another late singer, Lynsey de Paul: Sugar Me!

Joy Johnson, V&A Guide