Pleochroic 20

Red and Green Haiku (by Walter, drinking wine)
"On a long drive alone, stasis.
A friendly wave from the Stop/Go man."

Photograph of a cave made for shelter by men working on the Korokoro Road, 1933
Reference Number: 1/2-C-024610-F

Pleochroic 19

A hundred thousand on the kitchen table and five hundred on his knee. The wine was nearly finished. From a standing start, he thought, the light has turned green. Out of it.

James McAllister, Horse with a trotting sulky and driver, 1910
Reference Number: 1/1-009583-G

Pleochroic 18

Lifting the mattress he noticed a slit in the bottom of the cover, closed with two safety pins. Inside among the complicated springs he felt a canvas bag.

Geological time-scale by AH McLintock
Reference Number: A-191-004

Pleochroic 17

Digby’s bed had an electric blanket. Walt thought he should take the sheets off and use his own sleeping bag. As he removed the fitted sheet, a wad of money fell on the floor.

Sheila Ormond on 'The Wasp' at the Puketapu sports day, 1930
Reference Number: 1/4-021335-G

Pleochroic 16

He took off Digby’s glasses and the world softened.

CE Gold, Rocher Bayard, Duraut-sur-Meuse, Belgique, c 1865
Reference Number: A-288-023

Pleochroic 15

Alexandrite, he told the cat, was first discovered in the Urals on the day Alexander of Russia celebrated his birthday. Alexandrite has the fascinating property of changing its colour from green to a raspberry red when viewed under artificial light.

White Terraces destroyed by eruption 1886
Reference Number: E-068-003

Pleochroic 14

His voice startled a cat, poised half-way along the fence. It froze, its eyes amber crossed with gold; as it jumped down a blackbird fluttered away.

Ornamental kauri gum brooch belonging to Katherine Mansfield
Reference Number: Curios-018-1-004

Pleochroic 13

Pleochroic Beryl, displaying different colours depending on the angle at which she is approached.

Four women wearing hats, 1908
Reference Number: 1/1-009888-G

Pleochroic 12

He grunted, recalling the last time he saw Beryl, asleep at her birthday table, her cheek resting on a pizza. He had closed the door gently and found somewhere else.

Embroidered postcard from Lance/Sgt Walter Henry Saunders to Olive McDuff
Reference Number: Eph-A-WAR-WI-1917-05

Pleochroic 11

Time out. He opened the wine and sat on the porch, leafing through pages. A feature of the chrysoberyl, he read, is the occurrence of twinned crystals in the shape of a heart, giving the mineral a pseudohexagonal appearance.

Embroidered linen bookcover belonging to Katherine Mansfield
Reference Number: Curios-018-1-009

Pleochroic 10

He saw again the kindly, remote smile of his father studying rock samples with a magnifying glass.

James Hair's baby, c 1870
Reference Number: 1/4-008218-G

Pleochroic 9

Puffing dust from a book cover he recognised the fiery peacock colours of the Lightning Ridge Black Opal. The air spangled.

Mathematical curves produced by Henry Perigal
Reference Number: PA1-o-190-10

Pleochroic 8

He admired the markings of a moth on the window frame. Crepuscular.

Mason bees nest, photographed by William Price
Reference Number: 1/2-000628-G