Farewell to the Higgins Armory =(

[Justin Mercier 65]

So the Higgins Armory closed it's doors today for the last time. I went for one last trip to say goodbye and to take as many photos as I could without being obnoxious.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Too many to post in the thread here, so here's a link to the thumbnails. Click one to open the back and forth image browser.

 

http://www.tharkis.com/images/higgins/thumbs.py

[Karter Schuster 1]

Excuse my panic but, WHERE ARE THEY GOING TO PUT ALL THE PIECES NOW?!

[Matthew Parkinson 244]

some is to be sold (some of the collection already has been auctioned) and the "core collection" is to be housed at the Worcester art Museum....

[hansjohannsen 0]

R.I. is a little bit of a haul for me but I wish I knew... woosta is much better though. Anything else like this e hiding up here? Would love to bore the missus for a day. Manchester nh had a traveling Japanese exhibit a while ago that was amazing (to me). She couldn'tunderstand how I could look at a knife so long.

[J.Arthur Loose 163]

Thanks for the pictures, Justin. Sad to see the Higgins go.

[Jim Kelso 56]

Sad to see it go.

 

Don't forget the George Walter Vincent Smith Museum in Springfield, MA

 

http://www.springfieldmuseums.org/the_museums/gwv_smith_art/exhibits/view/35-japanese_arms_armor#.UsWkeP1iasQ

 

I have a huge soft-spot for this place as it was my first real exposure to Japanese art after Don and Jimmy told me to check it out. It's still a good exhibit but in those days the whole first floor was Japanese art and had a 19th Century atmosphere.

[Jeroen Zuiderwijk 250]

We've lost de dutch Army Museum too. The collection will be fused with the dutch Airforce Museum in a modern new building in another location. But it was originally located in a 17th century armory in the old city of Delft, which is where the weapons are supposed to be, as well as the reason what gave the museum it's atmosphere. So the collection will remain on display, for me the museum is lost. This is also the museum that got me interested in ancient weapons in the first place, so I can't go back anymore to the place that started my interest.

[Miles Hebbard 2]

So sad! Cool of you to post, I enjoyed the pics, some of the old tools are astounding! Want an anvil like that!

[Jeroen Zuiderwijk 250]

So sad! Cool of you to post, I enjoyed the pics, some of the old tools are astounding! Want an anvil like that!

 

You're not the only one I've been searching intensively for some years now to find a dated 18th century anvil exactly like that one.

[owen bush 292]

I am glad I got to see it when I did, what a shame.

I get the feeling of loss when a modern museum takes the collection of an old one.

the leeds armouries are are a prime example of that , lifeless soulless collection of stuff...

[Elias Sideris 0]

R.I. is a little bit of a haul for me but I wish I knew... woosta is much better though. Anything else like this e hiding up here? Would love to bore the missus for a day. Manchester nh had a traveling Japanese exhibit a while ago that was amazing (to me). She couldn'tunderstand how I could look at a knife so long.

 

 

Hans, the Higgins collection was always in Worcester, MA. My good friend Jack McAuliffe has volunteered at the Higgins for a long time as a Roman reenactor and took me into the basement once to take measurements and pictures of a bronze Halstatt-period arm-bracelet that they asked him to make a replica of. Cool project that I can't find any pictures of, unfortunately.

 

I'm pretty sure the only parts they're keeping in the Worcester Art Museum are those with "artistic" merit as opposed to antiquarian (regarding a conversation I had with another museum curator). In other words, only the flashy Renaissance stuff is really likely to be shown or possibly even kept. Let's be honest, to someone who is not an enthusiast, a rusty lump of viking sword is not exactly art museum material without an elaborate examination of the techniques that went into making it. I believe the majority of their collection has already been auctioned off in a sort of cut-your-losses move. Some of you may own their more antiquarian pieces already! No doubt some of the folks over on myarmoury.com already do.

 

A shame, but it was a long time coming.

 

Also to Hans: my mom lives a few blocks away from the Currier in Manchester, NH that had the Japanese exhibit, and I drooled over that too!