Antiques & Collectables | Scraps Of Mind

Archive for the ‘Antiques & Collectables’ Category

Posted by karooch on

July 16, 2007

Antiques @ Willi

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Well this weekend was the Annual Williamstown Antiques & Collectables Fair. The Rotary Club of Hoppers Crossing have been running this great little winter event for the last 15 years and it is probably my favourite Metropolitan antiques and collectables fair of the year. I’m not a big fan of the large pretentious fairs where you almost feel like they’re doing you a favour just letting you (and you money) in the door.

The Williamstown Fair is a friendly intimate event with 36 dealers, held in a heritage hall and spread across a number of rooms that you just seem to stumble upon as you wander around. Whilst there were stalls specialising in furniture, most of the traders at this fair sell mainly smalls (antique speak for smaller easily portable items such as porcelain, jewelery, silver, vintage clothing, woodworking tools, glassware etc.).

Allan and I rocked up on Sunday afternoon after a lovely lunch at Nosh’s Cafe in Newport (courtesy of a voucher I won at a Red Tent Woman network Dinner last month) prepared to enjoy a leisurely browse. And enjoy it we did. The hall was warm and toasty, a lovely contrast to the vigorous see breeze outside, and the dealers were charming and friendly.

Credits: Grungy Diamonds kit by Valeri Brumfield, Art Journal Alpha by Thao Cosgrove, Scrapsimple fancy folds and Lifted Squares templates, Overlay by Karooch Naturally it is compulsory for me to buy something at an event such as this, or what’s the point of having all my collections? But as it turned out what I bought had nothing to do with feeding my collecting habit. I picked up a nice warm pashmina (which I’ve used as an overlay on the background for this layout) and a cute little silver case for business cards. Now I can out-pretentious the best of them. Allan bought a framed 1970s advertising poster so we both came away feeling pretty pleased with the afternoon.

And then afterwards a stroll along the Williamstown foreshore which has the most scenic views of the city that you’ll find anywhere in Melbourne.

19th Century Scrapbooks

One of the little ‘fill-in’ 5 minute programs that ABC-TV (Australian) puts on to fill the gap between shows (where other channels would put commercials) is called Hidden Treasures. It’s presented by Betty Churcher who presents an insider’s guide to the ‘Hidden Treasures’ of the National Gallery of Australia that are rarely on public display. I caught an episode last week which was looking at early photography and right at the start it showed some fabulous Scrapbooks made by Australian women in the 19th Century. Check them out; they’re inspirational

Hidden Treasures Episode 10 (Windows Media Player)

Hidden Treasures Episode 10 (MP4)

Posted by Karen on

April 10, 2007

The Beauty of Belleek Porcelain

Time for another visit to my collections and this time a look at Belleek porcelain.

In 1858 Belleek was a small village owned by the Bloomfield family of Castle Caldwell in County Fermanagh, Ireland. John Caldwell Bloomfield had recently inherited the estate from his father and he was anxious about providing work for his tennants to protect them against disasters such as the Great Potato Famine that had devastated Ireland a few years previously; causing a million people to starve to death and forcing another million to flee the country seeking work in America, Canada and Australia.

Bloomfield noticed the unusual lustre of the limestone finish that his tennants applied to the walls of their cottages and, having an interest in ceramics and minerology, he decided to try to establish a pottery industry utilising the local clay and mineral feldspar which were present on his property. The two key things he was lacking were capital and know-how.

So he pitched his idea to Dublin businessman David McBirney and London architect Robert Williams Armstrong. McBirney financed the project and Armstrong used his interest in ceramics and his architectural skills to design and build the pottery, also becoming the pottery’s first manager.

So Belleek Pottery was born; providing security for local tennants who no longer had to rely soley on agriculture to sustain their community. The original output was earthenware, utilitarian pieces. But McBirney and Armstrong were keen to get into porcelain and began experimenting in this field, finally achieving some success in 1863. They brought skilled artisans such as Willam Bromley and William Gallimore over from Stoke-on-Trent to head up the Parian and modelling departments and to teach the local people the skills needed to make finer products.

Belleek’s original porcelain manufacture was fine Parian baskets with delicate woven bases and flowing floral decorations, and by the beginning of the 20th century this side of the pottery had pretty much taken over from the original utilitarian works. This Parian ware is a fine white porcelain having the appearance of marble. It is delicate and translucent with the light readily shining through the sides of the pieces. The glaze used by Belleek is one of the most beautiful you will ever come across. In 1857 Belleek secured the patent for a nacreous glaze that is extremely smooth surfaced, is unaffected by hairline cracking and is dust resistant (and yes, it really is). It is a beautiful creamy glaze and older Belleek pieces are typicaly a buttery yellow colour inside.

Belleek have made it easy to date their porcelain by changing the backstamp with which they mark their wares about 9 times since 1863. Each change has been documented so it’s easy to tell which period a piece comes from by the differences in the back stamp.

The cup, saucer and plate trio on the left are my favourite and oldest pieces. They carry the second black mark which dates them between 1891 and 1926. I just love the beautiful lustre of these pieces and their translucent quality. The green shamrock trio bears the fourth mark (1st green mark) and is from 1946-1955. and the little jug in the front carries the sixth mark and is from 1965-1980. Although the later pieces are beautiful delicate items by most other pottery’s standards, you can tell the difference in the fineness and translucency of the porcelain in the older pieces compared to the later ones.

Posted by Karen on

March 14, 2007

Ballarat Antiques Fair 2007

Labour Day weekend in Victoria heralds the Moomba Festival, the Ballarat Begonia Festival and the Annual Ballarat Antiques Fair. Those alert readers who have been following my Collectables series, browsing through my many and varied collections, will know that I’m a bit addicted to ‘old stuff’ (see Confessions of a Collectaholic). So an Antiques Fair makes me feel like a kid in a candy store.

Situated just over an hour’s drive out of Melbourne, the old gold mining town of Ballarat is now a lovely regional city just reeking with history (in Aussie speak that means anything between 200 and 50 years old). And the Ballarat Antiques Fair is one of my favourite fairs as it’s quite a large event and pulls dealers from all over the country. So you get to see a really good selection of stuff. And, of course, that means you can be pretty much guaranteed of finding something you want to buy. In my case there were many somethings. But since I’d just bought a new camera the day before I felt I should restrain myself from going completely wild with the credit card.

One of the things I love about these fairs is the interesting curiosities on display. The first thing to catch my eye when I walked in was a huge Teddy Bear sitting in an old pedal car. I’m a little bit partial to teddies (”what aren’t you partial to?” I can almost hear Seona sigh) And I was very drawn to him, but I resisted temptation and moved on. Then I came across this giant ceramic cockerel. He was just gorgeous (for looking at, not for buying) so I had to take a photo.

The basketball stadium where the event was held was packed with every imaginable vintage and antique collectable and knick-knack. As well as beautiful pieces of furniture, both Australian and European.

And it was a very successful shopping day for me. I picked up a couple of hatpins for my collection: one from the 1930s and one from the 1940s. I also netted a lovely green glass Victorian scent bottle with brass fittings. It hangs by a chain from a finger ring and was worn by ladies when they went to a dance to annoint themselves with perfume when things started to get a little warm. And my final purchase was a set of blue English wheel-cut port glasses from around 1910. I am testing them out as I write this post and I’m happy to tell you they work very well.

Toby Jugs - Will the real Toby Philpot please stand up?

Tope: To drink intoxicating liquor to excess esp. habitually hence, Toper (Toby) - Oxford Concise Dictionary

Although man has been fashioning vessels in his own image since he first discovered how to make waterproof containers out of clay, the Toby Jug is a particularly British phenomenon.

Many stories abound over who was the original ‘Toby’ on whom the jugs are based. And although a couple of heavy Stingo drinking Yorkshiremen are attributed with being the original Toby Philpot (fill pot), there’s no real proof that a single individual is the true inspiration. But, hey let’s not mess with legend!

Toby Jugs were originally large pitchers for serving ale in English hosteleries and inns during the 18th century. Over time their practical use diminished (they posed hygene issues with all the little nooks and crannies which were difficult to clean) and they were made for purely decorative purposes. The ‘original’ Toby design is of a portly gentleman sitting on a chair with a brimming mug of ale in one hand and a long stemed pipe in the other. Many variations of this design have been made by many different potters over the years but it remains the standard design and is known to collectors as the ‘Ordinary’.

Other styles of Tobies depict our portly gentleman seated on the ground with one knee drawn up or in a standing position, usually taking a pinch of snuff, playing the fiddle, and many other different poses.

My collecting interest lies with Toby Jugs of the 19th to mid 20th Century. I have about 25 so far but I do NOT collect character or face jugs such as the Doulton series ware which just model the head and shoulders of their subject. Don’t get me wrong I have nothing against these jugs, but I have kept my scope on Toby Jugs and am avoiding the ‘made for collectors’ items if possible.

The three Tobies I have selected from my collection for this photo are my three oldest ones. The Squatting Toby with the blue lustre coat on the left is from Allerton’s Pottery in Staffordshire and is probably from the first half of the 20th century. In the centre is a Snuff Taker made by Sampson Smith dating back to the late 19th C. and the red coated one on the right is my favourite: a double handled, double sided squat Toby from the 19th C.

As a sub-set of my Toby collection I have a collection of Toby Jugs made by Shorter & Son from the mid 20th Century. The style of these jugs is very different to that of other Tobies; kind of quirky. And that’s probably why they appeal to me. The hand painting is often naive but I prefer that to the airbrushed perfection of the Doulton, Artone and Kevin Francis type of models.

My one exception to my ‘no character/face jugs’ rule is a Shorter & Son King Neptune character jug which complements the King Neptune Toby (both 1950s-1970). King Neptune is a great model of a merman with a lobster across his front and a sea horse as the handle. The other example I have selected here is Covent Garden Bill (1940-1950), sitting on a fruit basket with another on his head and a banana for a handle. He is a reasonably uncommon model so I was particularly pleased when I managed to add him to my collection. He also has a character jug version which I will definitely make another exception for and add to my collection if I come across. And the last example I’ve chosen is the Chelsea Pensioner on the left (1930s-1964) which, at 4.5″ is the smallest of three sizes in which this model was made.