… a Latin name which translates into: “Song of a Parrot that is
wavelike.” It is the most common of all pet birds. Its name finds
its origins from the English derivation of the Australian aboriginal
term: Betcherrygah … which became "budgerigar and then segued into
Budgy … our nickname for the common parakeet. And that’s our daily
dose of “where it came from and what it is now” for today folks.
Shall we proceed?
Hirsch Kutchinsky … Polish born … began making fine jewelry with
his son Morris in London’s East End in 1893. Their workmanship was
outstanding … and the family jewels–you should pardon the
expression–gained renown. 37 years after the onset of the enterprise
–in 1930–Morris’ sons took over the family business …which became
so huge a success that they opened a store in London’s Knightsbridge
section where it remains–to the best of my knowledge–today after
having been purchased by London Hilton Jewelers.
Parakeet … the novelty bird of the 19th century. Turquoise …
Blue … Chartreuse … White … they were originally netted by the
millions (that’s 1,000,000 in multiples folks) in Australia and were
first exhibited to the public in England in 1840. And so the love
affair began … with no members of the trendy-chic being willing to
forgo the presence of a little Budgy in their living rooms.
There is extraordinarily little available on Hirsch
Kutchinsky … however … if a picture is worth a thousand words
… then the image of his little Budgy is worth many thousands of
syllables more. 9 centimeters high … our little Betcherrygah is
made of gold (karat unknown) … its head pave set with diamonds
with a ruby eye and rubies on it’s breast. He was created sometime
in the early 1950’s and has an estimated worth of two to three
thousand pounds sterling. (Anyone care to Americanize that into
dollars for me?)
I have heard it said that the shortest sentence in the world is:
“Adam had’em.” and while in no way do I intend to compete with such
pureness of brevity … I would like to believe that this issue of
Tidbits should rank in the forefront of brief e-zines in these
modern times when movie scenes rarely last more than ten
seconds–try timing one on the telly folks–and attention spans
might well be measured in nano-seconds. That said … anyone care to
view a Betcherrygah?
For those of you who are new to this thing called Tidbits…may I
direct you to my home page at www.tyler-adam.com where you will
scroll down the left side menu till you get to the area that says
Tidbits Graphics … and then click on the link that says:
Betcherrygah … where you’ll see an image of the yellow gold
Parakeet paveed with diamonds and set with rubies.
And there ya have it.
That’s it for this week folks.
Catch you all next week.
Benjamin Mark