Coconut Cup

Anthony : I suppose when we first moved here and started putting things out for birds, although it may have pre-dated mum, it may have been at Appin, my cottage, that bird feeding wasn’t so common – putting out open coconuts was… people used to slice them down the middle, and I thought what lovely wood, and so I opened the coconut by cutting off just below the 3 eyes and that left me with a lovely shell and then I noticed that the wood was extraordinarily hard – I couldn’t whittle it with my penknife and sawing through it was quite a job, and I was fascinated by the wood and then discovered that it was used in antiques – there were lots of silver mounted drinking coconut cups obviously from the early days of importing coconuts they were valued and people preserved the shells in that way and so I thought that using all these coconuts for feeding birds I decided to make one, and I realised that if one used a section of the coconut it made a very appropriate stand. So I took a lot of time and trouble fitting them together – I made a very good joint – I’m very impressed looking at it now. I’ve used it ever since. I can’t remember what I used it for at number 9 – I only started using it for coins when we moved through here and I rediscovered it. It may well have been a pencil cup originally.

Probably somewhere up at Buvoy I have an enormous bag full of coconut shells with the intention of making a whole series of lovely mugs but nobody has ever shown any interest, and I didn’t find it very convenient for drinking out of. It tended to dribble down because it’s not got a sharp edge. Sanded by hand to remove the hairs. It surprises me that other people don’t use coconut shells, it’s such a perfect shape, and very tactile, very hard, and that’s fallen on the floor many times…. And I’ve never come across it ever except in these antiques. 

If I was cutting it then I would have cut it at Boghall or Balmaha where father had a workshop, purely to hold it in a vice. I always wanted a workshop but the one at Boghall was very cold and poorly equipped. If I had ever had the real facilities and the time, but I never did, so I can’t call myself a craftsman. The first bit of my apprenticeship at L Stern was in the patent shop and I so enjoyed that period and that was the first time I got a real set of carpentry tools which I still have, real proper chisels and saws which I kept sharp. The first thing I made was at school – absolutely lovely – a French polished, walnut cased gramophone where I bought the turntable and the amplifier and put it inside – I made that when I was about 16 at Rugby. And only got rid of it when we moved here. With proper dovetail joints and everything – it was a quality piece. But that was done with lots of time and wonderful facilities.