It’s just an old Rank Strand 123 Fresnel…

But first…
Dulltown, UK: Today’s quotation is from Flann O’Brien’s very strange 1930s novel The Third Policeman:
As there was no side that I could see I thought the house must be triangular with its apex pointing towards me, but when I was only fifteen yards away I saw a small window apparently facing me and I knew from that that there must be some side to it. Then I found myself almost in the shadow of the structure, dry-throated and timorous from wonder and anxiety…
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What the hell is this. Dave?…

Yes, indeed, so what do we have here?
Well, as you can see, the photograph is dominated by the arse-end of a smooth round grey metal thing. Isn’t it an elegant and intriguing shape, dear reader? And those vents in the back – it looks like it might generate some heat that needs to be got rid of. Look, it seems that it can be swivelled, and also tilted up and down after loosening that nice wing nut on the right.
That lovely cool egg shape, that ovoid, is just begging you to reach out and feel its cool cheek-like form between your palms, isn’t it? I do that regularly…

Alright…
It’s a mid-1960s Rank Strand ‘model 123’ theatre lantern – a ‘Fresnel’ lens type. I have two of these; I bought them at a car boot sale on Beverley Race Course, very cheaply, several years ago. I became familiar with things like this during my dreary wasted days of designing and building theatre sets. At the top of the picture you can glimpse the square ‘gel frame’ sitting in its slots – this is where the coloured filters would be placed when ‘effects’ were needed on the set.
I have one of them attached to the ceiling pointed down at my drawing table, and the one above, I have converted into an attractive and eye-catching, oh, and rather novel, table lamp. They don’t have their original 500 watt bulbs in them of course – they have been replaced with modern LED lamps.
But Dave, why are you showing us this anyway?
Well, it’s because that scrap of paper on its pad, sitting under the lamp, is a rough design idea for yet another of my lino prints. By the way, isn’t ‘wing nut’ a pleasant coupling of words?
Yes, in my new print, I thought that I would feature the shape of one of those ‘French curves’ that I have used previously. But this time instead of just using part of it, I would have the whole thing in the picture – and I’d have it supine, but perhaps supported on little legs, possibly looking a bit like one of those big Henry Moore bronze sculptures. And maybe I’ll put some of my usual stripes, or a dotty sky, around it to fill in the blank black spaces…