A Fijian returns home.

This colourful plaster head arrived in the post this morning, from Tasmania on the other side of the world. I have been trying to buy one, at a reasonable price, for quite some time, and now, thanks to the wonders of the internet and Ebay, I have succeeded.

The head is, of course, that of a Fijian gentleman, resplendent with his traditional whale tooth necklace, and is a gift for our daughter who was born in those romantic islands just after their independence from British control. I hope that it will always remind her of her roots.

In a sense the head has come home because it was made in Congleton in the English county of Cheshire. This was the home of W.H. Bossons, a company that made a wide range of painted plaster heads from 1946 to 1996. The heads were extremely popular and were exported all over the world. Today they are still avidly collected by enthusiasts, but my own interest begins and ends with this Fijian!