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[jim in paris]

hi all

hello my dear Lourens !
welcome to the topspinning forum

......Me received the book yesterday through my friend Ludovic Petit, in france

i want to thank you and congratulate you for this masterpiece

i talked to cyril mermilliod the collector last night we commented the pages
sometimes he would say I have this also or...."this is not a toupie " it can' t be launched  ...he said he visited you 10 years back...1 hour on the phone he was really excited !!

question
what happened on page 28 ?

the drawings on page 70 top right corner  :
do you have this book ?what do you think of these drawings ?

page 71  the drawings again:
 do you have the book or did you get permission from Leipzig ?

page 138 would you allow me to copy this page for a personal use ??

thanx in advance for your input and if you have time i'll have other questions   


jim in paris


yoyo/spintop player
amateur woodturner and performing artist

[Lourens]

Hello Jim,
First of all: thank you very much for your kind words!
I will try to answer your questions.
Page 28: What do you mean with 'what's happened?'
Page 70: yes, I do have the original books. The drawings top right corner have been used in the books by Walter Kaudern and later by Kruyt. The other drawings on the same page have been made by Kruyt (De Tol in den Indischen Archipel) in 1935. It is a part from a very large research he did in the Archipelago of Indonesia. And it is the answer on the book from Kaudern. kruyt was not satisfied the book from Kaudern (Games and dances in Celebes). I think the drawings are very good and I have much more of the same research. The names, written on page 69, are all islands that he used during his research.
Page 71: I have some original pages from this Lexicon in my collection.
Page 138: Jim, can we talk about this again after i have sold most of the books? i hope you understand this from my point of view.

Please, explain  the question about page 28 and I will try to answer this too. Other questions and input are welcome and I hope we will keep in touch. Warm Regards, Lourens.

[ta0]

Just a few minutes after receiving the package of Trompos Space from Spain I received the two books (courtesy of the mailman): WOW! Jim is right, it is a masterpiece!!!!  I have only browsed the first few pages as I now need to work (how???) and I don't want to rush it. I want to slowly enjoy every page.
Thanks Lourens!

PS: I skipped to page 28 and I don't know what Jim is referring to.  I also peeked at page 138 and I had to laugh! 

[poptop]

Welcome Lourens!

Looking forward to looking through your new book.  Thanks!

[MatiasStuntMan]

What is the name of the book, and where can you buy it?

[Lourens]

Hello Matias,
I can sent you some information and a digital flyer about the book if you sent me your e-mail address. Kind regards, Lourens.

[Eric]

Lourens,  could you send me the book ordering information too?  - Eric

[ta0]

The original post is here. The ordering form is here, although most people would just want to order by email (listed on the form.) Don posted the shipping costs to the US for multiple copies on that thread.

[the Earl of Whirl]

Congratulations Lourens on a great work.  I haven't seen it yet but it is exciting to hear the great reviews from people I respect.  I look forward to some day seeing your book and enjoying all your hard work.

[jim in paris]

hello again

it's great to have you here on the forum !

my Q about page 28 is just a nonsense  joke//
it's the only page where the captions are handwritten, so i was wondering what had happened that day ,
 keyboard on strike ? possibly !

p 187/188 :  !! it got me in a state of shock ...it's so magnifique..the character is a wonder and the jumping top too

on the important matters : the way you push Richard Andree ' s thesis a little further by pointing the similitude between some american indian tops and tops from european origin makes the reading really thrilling

your book goes far beyond a "collector's book"


on a side not the drawing p 70 is credited to Kaudern in Gould's book(p28)
Kruyt is not mentioned
 bizarre !

jim

[ta0]

And I have a more personal question. You say you started your collection with a 19th century whip top you found at an archaeological site (1st photo in the introduction.)  Did you just stumble upon the whip top laying on the ground or was it unearthed on a professional dig? What was your second top and when you decided to start collecting them in a serious manner?

[Lourens]

Hello Jim,
Thank you again for your enthusiasm and questions. I see you reed very thorough and some of your questions are about things that make a difference!
Concerning p.28: i understand your joke but I hope that you feel glad that I didn't do the whole book like this! After all, it is the way I have worked during the years that I studied the spinning tops and was preparing this book: I work like using a diary and make drawings, sketches in small notebooks. This all has to do with an artistic background!
The top on page 187 / 188 is indeed very rare! I have never seen or heard about a second one. I bought it about 10 years ago.
About Gould: his probleme was that he was not able to read the Dutch and German  language. But he was clever enough to ask people in museums to translate some things for him. I have never met him in person but in 1977 / 1978 I had a correspondence with him. He was almost 79 years at that time, i think. We had similar ideas. His interest had the background of a scientist (he was an engineer) and mine was more artistic and historical. He was a collector of spinning tops and he put his tops in the collection of the University Museum of Pennsylvania together with the collection from Stewart Cullin. After his professional life as an enigeer he was very interested in spinning tops. So I still have some pages and letters from him, written on the original paper of this University. We planned to do research about spinning tops from the Baltic area but unfortunately he passed away before we could make a start.

So, 'this is all folks for this moment'! Kind regards, Lourens.

[Lourens]

Dear Ta0,
First of all, thank you for your kind mail and personal words!
Let me tell you some more about how it al started.
on the age of 21 (a very long tome ago!) my youngest brother in law and me walked along a small stream. Archeological research was done there and finished by a special organisation. My brother in law found the spinning top and i found a silver coin. We both were more interested in the finding if the other one so we did a swap! When I came I showed my father how wonderful the top looke: like a fossil! my father told that his tops were still with his family and I picked them up (a small gyroscope with the Eiffeltower (1910) and a wooden peg top from the same time). And 3 tops make a small collection and soon became five and after this ... i stopped counting and enjoyed collecting all the differences, as well as shapes, countries, materials  and so on. That is 46 years ago.

Warm regards, Lourens.

[ta0]

Thank you for sharing your story, Lourens.
I wish one day I could say I picked up a top myself from an archaeological site! Nowadays, the vast majority of my tops come from ebay or they are new.  A few I receive as gifts, for example from people that travel and find one. Very, very seldom do I discover one myself at an antique shop, flea market, etc.

Forty six years of studying and collecting tops is a long time indeed!

[jim in paris]

dear lourens,

thanx again for your comments
i wish i could talk to you about Mr Malafosse i'm sure you've visited him or met him
Cyril has already told me a bit about him ....

p 207/ + P 247
these caricatures with a political figure pictured with a spintop or a yoyo has many variations...postcards, ink work etc...it' s interesting to see that the object corresponds perfectly to its significance :
 a top spinning = hazard , unreliable ,
yoyo= dilettante distraction for people who are not "serious"

.................////////////// cut in
and page 208 suddenly appears Mata Hari !
wonderful illustration , she was a TOP lady ( for sure , vulture  )

hope the distribution is going well
be ready for a re-run 



jim