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Man with massive collection of bird tchotchkes

David Pescovitz at 10:12 am Thu, Apr 5, 2012

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Birdssss

Lawrence Cobbold, 38, collects bird tchotchkes -- bird ornaments, bird thimbles, bird refrigerator magnets, bird mugs, bird pictures, bird jigsaw puzzles. He really really digs birds. His collection of more than 20,000 bird-related items takes up his entire home near Plymouth, England. The Plymouth Herald profiled Cobbold:

 Wp-Content Uploads 2012 04 Vbirdplatt On average he spends two hours before work and two hours at night rearranging, tidying and cleaning…

Lawrence's dad Tony used to keep up to 300 budgies, canaries, cockatoos and finches for over 20 years and thinks that could be where his son's interest with birds started.

Tony has also been organizing car boot sales for over 15 years.

"It's lovely, a great hobby. His house is like one big car boot sale except no one is buying or selling," Tony said.

"Man with 20,000 bird ornaments has no room left to live at home"

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

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  • charming.quark

    Why am I not surprised to hear that this fellow is English?

  • http://idreamlo-tech.blogspot.com/ TON S.

    Interesting. I read about some woman who collects used teabags, she’s got hundreds of them. Collectors can be “un poco loco.” 

  • bcsizemo

    I hope he has a good air system.  I can’t imagine dusting all those things.

    • M Carlson

       Ugh, that was exactly what I was thinking. I don’t collect stuff cause I can’t stand dusting!

  • freshyill

    Oh, my babies. My sweet chippies.

  • Yep

    “Listen darling, I think you’re a fabulous bird. Can I get your telephone number?”

  • quitterjunior

    Put a bird on it. 

    • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=614768224 Chuck Dennis

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XM3vWJmpfo

  • Winston White

    Norman, is that you?

    • hypersomniac

       Mother, she’s just a stranger. She’s hungry, and it’s raining out!

  • http://sterlinganderson.net Sterling Anderson

    The most awesome thing about this story is that I have ten of those owl plates in the second picture. My parents went through a brief time where they got their kids “collectable” plates. :-)

    • http://twitter.com/kpkpkp Kevin Pierce

      Want to sell them?   I think I know a guy…

  • http://twitter.com/kpkpkp Kevin Pierce

    It’s a beautiful collection – let’s hope, with those high shelves, that he is in a seismically stable location. 

    • SomeGuyNamedMark

       Wait until someone releases a bull into his house.

      • http://twitter.com/kpkpkp Kevin Pierce

        Just as long as it has wings

  • Antinous / Moderator

    He also has shelves of elves.  He’s quite handsome, too.

  • woid

    Oh, I don’t know anything about birds. My hobby is stuffing things… taxidermy. And I guess I’d just rather stuff birds because… well, I hate the look of beasts when they’re stuffed, foxes and chimps and all… some people even stuff dogs and cats… but I can’t… I think only birds look well stuffed because they’re rather… passive, to begin with… most of them…

  • SomeGuyNamedMark

    He needs to meet a lady (or guy?) who is into Hummel figurines.