In October last year I received an email from Diana Larsen of the McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College.

Its first line read.........
I was interested to discover you online and I would love to talk with you about your experiences with Irish vernacular furniture.

She went on to explain to me that she was the Exhibitions and Collections Manager / Designer at the museum and was researching for an essay that she was to write for the catalogue for an exhibition that the museum was to mount between February and July this year - Rural Ireland - The Inside Story

And a conversation began - mostly on line - questions were asked and answered, information was exchanged and pictures were delivered.

And the last line of her final communication read.....
................I will be sure to send you a copy of my article once I have completed it.

And then silence.
A silence that was both reasonable and anticipated while, I assumed, Diana ordered her thoughts and wrote her piece.

But this silence prevailed beyond the date that I understood the exhibition was due to open and, as I had delivered information and, in particular, photographs, that are of unrivalled (maybe unrivallable) archival importance (to me anyway), I began to wonder, whenever it crossed my mind, if I had made a mistake.

And, on a number of occasions, I said to myself that I would send Diana a querulous prompt - but I never did.

And then, in late February, this arrived.

And, of course, I rushed to Diana's article to check if and, if so, how had she represented my contributions to her research.

I could not have been happier!
The photographs that I so value illuminated her text, she quoted me extensively and accurately and she acknowledged me in the notes, delightfully..............

Clive Nunn, former dealer, furniture maker and one of the founders of the Irish Country Furniture Society shared his experiences with me in interviews and provided photographs from his personal photo archive of vernacular Irish furniture.
He lectures on the subject and has an engaging website: www. clivenunn.com
(Clive Nunn, email interview by Diana Larson, Oct. 10, 2011)

These are the photographs.

Why do I attach such importance to them?

For a number of reasons.

Not least because they are a potent reminder of my life back in the late 1970's and early 1980's when I was dealing in vernacular Irish furniture.

Also, because I suspect that there will be few similar photographs in existence.
We were not such a snap-happy people back in those years: taking pictures was a far more deliberate activity, requireing a hefty camera and some knowledge as to how to use it successfully, film and two trips to the chemist to deliver the film and collect the prints.

So I suspect that there will be few other pictures taken of roadside deals with travellers and of the volumes of furniture that was being discarded at the time.

Finally, I harbour intentions of writing about vernacular Irish furniture, with particular reference to it dispersal and loss, myself and these pictures would illuminate my story with eloquence.

And, for the record, the traveller (I would have called him a tinker at the time and he would not have been insulted) in the picture is of Henry Connors of Pallas, Clonroche, Co. Wexford.
Henry is still hail and hearty - or as hail and hearty as he ever was - and I still see him and members of his (very extensive) family from time to time.

The picture was taken early one Sunday morning in 1982 by Dessie Conlan, a design student from Belfast who was researching for his thesis on Irish furniture at the time.
Sadly, Dessie died very soon after completing his doctorate but I have a copy of his finished work - another very rare document I would hazard.

I just love the picture - note the little girl on the pony in the background.