INVENTORY
Four be the things I am wiser to know:
Idleness, sorrow, a friend, and a foe.
Four be the things I’d been better without:
Love, curiosity, freckles, and doubt.
Three be the things I shall never attain:
Envy, content, and sufficient champagne.
Three be the things I shall have till I die:
Laughter and hope and a sock in the eye.
- Dorothy Parker
Pictured top: a bookplate made in 1987. Collections: State Library of Victoria, private collections.
In terms of a physical inventory, the Art Deco clock (presented to my late grandfather, Lee Rogers, by the Port Augusta Swimming Club) and vase (purchased at Portobello Road Market, London in the 1970s) sit on the mantelpiece in the dining room of the Art Deco house we moved into late last year. The cocktail glasses, a gift from the old friend this bookplate was originally made for, are stored in an adjoining glass cabinet.
