ANKE

[ENGLISH TRANSLATION]

My name is Anke, and I've lived in Eindhoven my whole life, with a brief interruption, and my whole life is now 62 years. The object is a small horse, which, when I received it, I didn't know was called "Little Horse." It's an heirloom.

Maarten's mother, ++, a good friend. Yes, it's a horse. I think it's about fifty centimeters high, wide, and long.

I don't know what's inside, but it's completely covered in leather, which is stretched tightly over it, so you can see all the markings in the tail and mane. It's beautifully made, and I inherited it because I knew it from ++, and ++ is Maarten's mother, and ++ was a very sweet, beautiful woman who recently passed away.

And the people who knew her well were allowed to come and pick something out one evening, and "Little Horse" was there.

And "Little Horse" was originally bought by ++'s sister,

and her niece was there too. We also had dinner together. It was a lovely evening.

And I said if the little horse is left behind, I'd really like to take it. She even came over to tell me she was so happy I was taking the little horse, because her mother had bought it and she didn't have room for it.

And once the little horse was with me, I became even more enthusiastic about it because it's such a special horse. And now I'm even thinking about going to ‘Kunst en Kitsch’ or something. Not to know what it's worth, but to know the story behind this horse with all that tightly stretched leather. I've never seen it, and I'm very curious where it came from and how old it is and all that. And I've also heard that the grandchildren used to climb on it, so it still looks remarkably intact. I took it home and then I thought: it'll be nice for the grandchildren, because ++ loves horses so much. But once it was inside, I thought: I'll just keep it downstairs, because I think it's so nice to look at.