Unique pieces

The Etnogràfic Campos collection brings together a series of unique objects that stand out for their historical, cultural and ethnographic value. Many of these pieces bear witness to trades, traditions and ways of life that have disappeared or have changed radically over time. Some of them are extremely rare and difficult to find nowadays, a fact that makes them key elements for a better understanding of the history and roots of Mallorca.

Below, we highlight some of the most relevant pieces in the exhibition, each with a unique history and special importance within our heritage:

• The solid wheel cart. This is an exceptional piece, the number of examples that have been preserved in Mallorca is very limited, due to the successive prohibitions to circulate that took place from the end of the 18th century until the beginning of the 19th century.
• The quarry mill. A spectacular example due to its size, it gives us an idea of how the mareses (sandstones) were raised from the quarries in Mallorca.
• The sandstone. Exposed with their traditional sizes, in terms of length, width and thickness, and which were also extracted from the quarry by hand.
• The vineyard yoke. If the yokes for ploughing and carting have been little studied, those for ploughing vines have been even less studied; since nowadays nobody has ever seen them used, only heard of them, there is very little living memory left to learn about this object.
• The funeral stretcher. An exceptional piece once used by bell ringers to carry the deceased to their graves. Each carpenter used to have one for his parishioners, but both because they have not been used for a long time and because of people’s superstition surrounding its functions have led to their disappearance.
• The templates for making cartwheels. They are remarkable because they are marked with sizes prior to the metric system and give us an idea of how our ancestors measured.
• The doors of the old parish church of Campos. This is an interesting and valuable testimony from the religious heritage of the town. Generations of bell ringers entered through these doors to be baptised and left to be buried between 1583 and 1875.
• The tinsmith’s hammers and anvils. The traditional and domestic part of the objects made by tinsmiths are disappearing, with very few professionals remaining in Mallorca. The collection of anvils and hammers, as well as the rest of the tools, are of exceptional importance for future studies.
• The collection of blades for mincing meat to make sobrasada. These pieces were completely removed from their functions when the meat mincing machine was introduced. No one alive has ever seen them used and they are very interesting for an ethnographic study.
• The glass funnels for filling sobrasadas. The veterinarian Joan Jaume Miralles, born in 1900, said that he never saw these funnels being used, but he did hear about them from older people. Very few written references and studies have been made about glass funnels, as they disappeared with the introduction of the mechanical sausage stuffer.
• The tea lights and the partygoers. Thanks to drawings by Archduke Ludwig Salvator, we know about the use of these lights, but they are now extremely rare. They played a key role in many traditional trades and activities.
• The lluquet or sulfur wick. So simple and poor was this element that it is practically impossible to find the original, as they disappeared from the houses with the introduction of matches.
• The Roman scale for weighing oxen, with a capacity of almost 700 kg, is one of the largest still preserved in Mallorca.
• Leather bag for transporting oil.. They were very common in Mallorca for transport oil; it is a very simple object, but very fragile and difficult to preserve. They are practically no longer found on the island.
• The straw mattresses. Many of them were torn apart and reused, their fabric was used to make patches, since they stopped being used many years ago. Also, many people confused them with simple mattress covers.