A collection of keyrings and magnets were presented at the April meeting. It seems that the group had no trouble in putting together their collections as shown in the photos. There were mementos from cruise ships, places visited both locally and overseas and from favourite stage shows. Some had special meanings such as the magnet with the red poppy and bearing the inscription “In Flanders fields the poppies grow”. This poem was written in 1915 by John McCrae, a Canadian officer and physician in the Ypres area in Belgium, and read by him at the funeral service for his friend Alexis Helmer killed on active service. The poem helped to popularise the red poppy as an ongoing symbol of remembrance for those killed in service. The group next meets at 10.00am on Monday 2nd May when the theme will be embroidered articles. These may be old items or something you have made yourself. All welcome. Janet Gourley for Dorothy Webber |
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The Collectors group met on Monday, 7th March when the theme for the day was something very treasured and/or very old. An eclectic assortment of treasures was discussed including a hand woven tartan scarf made at school; an egg slicer and apple corer. There was a china elephant with a bowl attached to its back and dolls brought out from the UK when the family migrated to Australia.
Amongst the war memorabilia was a brass bell brought back from Egypt; some war medals from the UK, an ID tag and the band off a sailor’s hat from the HM Minesweeper. Jewellery included a beautiful chain and locket, a fob watch and a very old Rolex watch in its original box. There were two sweet little china bowls in a basket weave design. The group next meets on Monday, 4th April at 10.00am when the theme will be key rings and magnets - there are sure to be plenty of those around. All are welcome to attend this fun group. Janet Gourley for Dorothy Webber. U3A Benalla's Collectors' group provides a wonderful opportunity to reminisce. It would have been wonderful to hear the stories attached to these items from Collectors' class members when they shared their memories of them in March. If you have enjoyed collecting items over time, have inherited family treasures, or find that somehow you have a store of treasured items, why not join Collectors? First Monday - 10 to 12 midday - next session Monday 4th April! Check the newsletter for details of what to bring in April!
The first session of Collectors was postponed until Monday 7 March at 10am, when members are invited to bring along something they treasure and something very old.
Collectors provides a supportive space in which to reminisce and share stories about the past while presenting treasured items to the class. New and returning members welcome! Janet Gourlay, for Dorothy Webber Collectors provides a wonderful chance to reminisce and share stories about the past while presenting treasured items to the class. Some of our group members are 'Collectors extraordinaire' - other members simply enjoy delving into their cupboards, shelves and sheds to find an interesting item or two to capture the theme of the month.
Bring along both a treasured item and the oldest item in your collection on Monday 7 February from 10 am. Dorothy Our Sixth Christmas together! While numbers attending have been affected by Covid, the group thoroughly enjoyed spending time together in early December reflecting on Christmas, past and present.
Dorothy Webber The topic of our November meeting was ‘Serviettes and serviette rings’. There was a nice display of these rarely used items featuring silver serviette rings, one with a kookaburra on top; others plain but functional and equally pleasing.
For the December meeting the topic is ‘Christmas’. Judith Borthwick Photographs: Dorothy Webber Although the group was quite small in October, a lovely assortment of sugar bowls were presented and discussed. Collectors provides a wonderful opportunity to reminisce, both when telling the story of items from your own collection and when listening to the memories shared by others. The next topic – ‘Serviette Rings’.
Dorothy Webber A small and enthusiastic group met in August with a colourful display of Scarves. As we all know you can’t have enough scarves! When we meet again (???), the theme is Sugar Bowls. See you on 6th September or 4th October.
Dorothy At the July meeting we showed and told the story of our Jug collections. Robyn’s Toby Jugs with their wonderful faces. Janet with a green Depression Glass jug she uses most days in her kitchen. Heather has a fun collection of animal jugs. Marjorie a great Bendigo Pottery and lovely spotted jugs. Judith showed some of her loved Depression jugs. My highlight is a blue jug - the last surviving one of a set of three, it was a wedding present. When we meet again, hopefully on Monday 2 August, our theme is Scarves.
Dorothy Webber I have been surprised how many Jugs I have! Looking forward to seeing you and your Jugs on Monday 5th July.
Dorothy At our first meeting for almost a year we showed a few of our favourite things. It is always wonderful to hear the stories attached to the items we bring and to notice the love we all have of the treasures we show.
As our next meeting will fall on Easter Monday we won’t meet till May 3rd at 10 am. Teapots will be on show! Dorothy 0412263071 Do you enjoy The Collectors and Bargain Hunt on TV? Have you a collection or the beginnings of one? Collectors is for people who enjoy collecting and seeing the collections of others. Sessions take the form of show and tell with participants bringing along an item or a collection to share with others in the group.
The first session will be held on Monday 1st March from 10am to 12 midday. The brief – bring along something you will never give away. Dorothy Webber 0412 263 071 ![]() I haven't been able to part with Garfield yet. With the exception of my childhood 1960s teddy bear and my late sister's 1950s battered and well-hugged teddy, he's the only soft toy I own. Garfield was bought in 1988 at Surfers Paradise where I stayed while visiting World Expo 88 in Brisbane. You might remember the over $600 million, six month long event with 100 pavilions, 36 participating countries and 18 million visitors. Garfield began in 1976 as an American comic strip called Jon after Garfield's owner, Jon Arbuckle, and was created by cartoonist Jim Davis. Garfield's name and personality came from Jim's cantankerous grandfather, James A Garfield Davis. The strip became Garfield in 1978 and in 2013 it took the Guiness World Record for the most widely syndicated comic strip. Known for his laziness, sarcasm and eating, Garfield hates Mondays,diets and any exertion. His favorite food is lasagna but, over the years, he has slimmed down gradually and now walks on two feet instead of four. Call me naive, but I recently learned Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer was only created in 1939 for an American store, Montgomery Ward, by copy writer, Robert May. The other reindeer of Santa Claus are from the 1823 poem, A Visit From St Nicholas by Clement Clarke Moore, which we know as The Night Before Christmas. Rudolph began life as a free Montgomery Ward colouring-in book for children at Christmas time and singing cowboy, Gene Autry, recorded the now famous song in 1949. Wishing Collectors' members and the wider Benalla U3A community a very bright Christmas and New Year. Jacquie Schwind Collectable chocolate, cosmetics and hosiery boxes are a rare find nowadays. Antique or vintage cardboard often deteriorates over time, ripping, staining or rotting, so I was pleased to recently discover a small face powder box in good condition up for sale. I'm a vintage tin person but I keep an eye out for boxes as well and have a tiny collection - a 1950s Cussons Damask Rose box with a woman wearing a rose hat and holding a rose, a Cussons Spring Blossoms bath cubes box (age unknown) with flowers and two bath cubes inside and a 1960s Kolotex Clings hosiery box, with a man in a suit and a woman in a dress from the hips down and a black poodle looking up at them, containing unopened "seamless mesh nylons". My new acquisition is a Poudre Azurea L.T. Piver Paris box, age unknown, although it has an art deco look. Azurea was a perfume of rose, jasmine and iris, launched by L T Piver in 1897 and it came in a variety of other products including face powder, talc and soap. In 1813, Louis Toussaint Piver took over a Paris perfume business which had been founded in 1774 and risen to become the official seller to the court of Louis XVI and the royal families of Europe. The 1800s saw L T Piver grow to more than 100 branches around the world and loyal customers included the Bonapartes. Sculpted crystal bottles by Lalique and Baccarat were provided for L T Piver scents. Jacquie Schwind
Carlton Ware is very popular among members of our Collectors group. Carlton Ware's earliest range was Blush Ware, transfer printed or hand-painted floral designs on pastel backgrounds. Throughout the decades, Carlton Ware has been inspired by many themes, including blue and white, museum artefacts, coats of arms, military vehicles, suffragettes, Asian and Egyptian scenes, hollyhocks, foxgloves and violets, the colors of rouge, vert, noir and bleu, advertising for companies such as Guinness and, the more modern 'walking ware' featuring little feet. Lesser known facts in Carlton Ware history are the two tragedies which befell the Wiltshire family which owned the company. One of the founding owners, James Wiltshire was killed in a dreadful railway station accident, leaving Carlton Ware to his son Frederick Cuthbert. In 1952, Frederick's wife was brutally murdered in their home. She was beaten to death with a poker during a robbery and the police pinned her murder to Leslie Green, who was subsequently hung. Leslie was a former chauffeur to the family, sacked two months prior to the robbery for using a car for his own purposes. Three thousand pounds worth of jewellery was stolen in the robbery. Police found Green had given rings to his girlfriend that matched stolen items. His shoes matched bloody footprints left at the scene of the murder and he had a recently healed cut on the thumb of his left hand which perfectly matched a tear in blood stained gloves also left behind. The pictured bowl and serving plate are treasured pieces of Carlton Ware, handed down by my late grandmother. Jacquie Schwind
My fondness for kerosene lamps began in 1966 when I took my mother to visit a friend who had dozens of kerosene lamps on display. I think I sat mesmerised by these beautiful lamps for the entire visit.
Many years later Mum, knowing my fondness for kerosene lamps, arrived back from a holiday with the beautiful milky blue lamp which took pride of place in our home. It was not just ornamental, it was kept full of lamp oil with matches beside, and well used because the power often went off, usually at dinner time with dinner half cooked and small boys needing a bath. The problem was eventually fixed but despite the inconvenience it was lovely sitting by lamp light in the lounge room which was heated by a wood heater. This is the first lamp on the left in the photo. We were living in Benalla when I purchased by next lamp at a clearing sale in Waller Street. I stood for hours and it was auctioned quite late in the proceedings. There was another bidder for the lamp who I think was equally keen but eventually I became the proud owner of the next lamp in the photo. My sister and I had a holiday in England in 1997 and stopped at a village in England in and had coffee next to an antique shop. Against my better judgement I had a quick look inside and saw green kerosene lamp I eventually purchased. I was told it was a 1930’s lamp. It is a double burner and has an unusual chimney which is flat on two sides. This was fine while we had our hire car but became a problem when we had to leave our car in Reading and travel back to London by train and then more trains to Archway station. My sister remembers wrestling with two lots of luggage while I sailed along carrying my precious lamp quite oblivious to her struggles. I bought the amber lamp at Camberwell market. I would often catch a tram down Whitehorse Road and then another down Burke Road to the market during visits to Melbourne. I saw it on several visits and eventually decided that, if the lamp was still there on my third visit, I would buy it, which it was and so I did. It also has a double burner which apparently is desirable as it shows a brighter light. The little pink lamp, although pretty, was probably not a good buy as it’s a bit wobbly. I think I bought it in Balwyn. I put it on the floor once when I was dusting in a hurry and kicked it over but it didn’t break. I thought that was a pretty silly thing to do as I could have broken it, however I put in back on floor continued my dusting, kicked it over again and this time broke the bottom of the chimney. It is now glued up, You can’t see the break, but I know it’s there. None of my lamps are shown in a book I bought on lamps which features much grander lamps. Mine are far less grand but give me a lot of pleasure. Judith Borthwick August 2020 Prior to the COVID-19 shutdown I was lucky enough to visit the Glenrowan Vintage Hall and purchased two Trinket Boxes. One was a delightful vintage Trinket Box made by Crown China Craft Ltd. with yellow, mauve and pink flowers on the lid of a green pot. It was handmade and painted in England with gold trim around the lid and top of the pot. This company originated in 1946 in Stoke-on-Trent, England. The other was a Trinket Box made by Capodimonte porcelain ware, vintage 1950 handmade and painted in Italy with roses on the lid and gold trim. Capodimonte porcelain originated in Naples in 1743. This delicate porcelain is easily recognizable for its tiny pastel flowers and elegant figurines. It is still produced today and the vintage items are sought after. I also obtained from Marketplace on Facebook a piece of Art Deco Carlton Ware. This plate is called Vert Royale and was manufactured in the 1920's along with Rouge Royale and Bleu Royale. Carlton Ware was first produced in 1890 in Stoke-on-Trent, England. We hope that we will soon be able to get together again at Collectors. Robyn Desmier
While meetings are on hold, people can still explore what others have collected on the Internet to while away some of the hours in self-isolation. Here are three collecting websites to get you started. www.collectorsweekly.com. Interesting and diverse articles such as:
www.collect.com. If you go to the site and click on antique trader, you will find some good stories on collectibles, ceramics, furniture, glass, jewellery and art. www.atchuup.com/weirdest-collection-of-things-ever/ 43 people who collect strange things, from hotel do not disturb signs to 3500 dalmatian spotted items. Prior to the rules for travel being brought in, I was able to add three more vintage tins to my collection, which I think numbers about 350 now. They were a Peak Frean budgerigar tin, a large Willow floral tin and a Plaistowe birds of Western Australia chocolate and confectionery tin. The Plaistowe factory in Perth began operation in 1915 and in 1930 Plaistowe manufactured more than 400 confections. Plaistowe was acquired by Nestle in the 1990s and the Plaistowe brand only applies now to cooking chocolate and cocoa. Jacquie Schwind This article was initially sent in by Jacquie on 13 April. A technical gliche meant that this wasn't included in the latest newsletter. Thank you Jacquie for submitting it so early - we do apologize.
The theme for the March meeting was metal and 12 people brought an interesting variety of items. Jacquie brought a solid copper vase which was possibly an example of trench art, Japanese tile and metal trivets and two J S & S Sankey copper hot water jugs in a lizard skin finish. Jennie had a little pineapple shaped pill box with tiny tongs. They were popular in the 1800s, being made for the Russian czars, but she was told this one was a copy, made in the 1930s. Wendy’s items included a Dubarry by Paramount silver coffee pot with bakelite handle from the 1930s, Judith had a brass compote, Indian oil burner and brass candle holders while Janet’s items included an English silver tea set with a water irises and cranes pattern. Margaret brought a reproduction of a medieval thimble from Ireland and a gold and turquoise brooch over 100 years old with the gold said to have come from a Bendigo mine. Shirlie, who lived in India for some time, had some interesting items from that country’s roadside sellers. There were brass and copper receptacles pilgrims used to bring back holy water from the Ganges and a paan box. Paan is a preparation of betel leaf and areca nut, chewed and then spat out or swallowed, used for its stimulant and euphoric effects. Heather brought some tins including one of the Australian Red Ensign flag in the Anzac series, Sandie had wire model cars, reminiscent of her travels in Africa where children ran along the streets, towing the cars behind them while Alan showed a silver florin, Australia’s first commemorative coin for the 1927 opening of Parliament House, Canberra. Both Wilma and Robyn’s items included a military theme. Robyn brought memorabilia from her grandfather’s service on a World War 1 mine sweeper while Wilma brought jewellery fashioned from mother of pearl and the silver of two, shilling pieces, made by her father while serving in the airforce in New Guinea during World War 11. Jacquie Schwind The first 2020 meeting of Collectors drew 16 people, most of whom brought along some of their favourite items. They included Dorothy’s diminutive Peter Pan sewing machine and very old ivory elephant, Robyn’s Carlton ware, Wilma’s teapots and linen tea towels, Helen’s family lace collection and Shirlie’s commemorative English royal family books and a handmade coronation procession skirt.
Judith brought her pride and joy, a fuchsia Royal Winton Grimwades dish, while Jenny brought a coloured handle Wiltshire cutlery set, won by someone in a 1964 golf competition. Wendy had an elegant art deco, chalkware figurine of a dancing couple and a replica anointment spoon from Edward’s coronation and Jennifer brought a Carlton Ware cup and saucer and a Royal Staffordshire strawberry dish. Jacquie showed an ammonite fossil of a coiled shell from either the Jurassic or Cretaceous period, ammonites being a squid like creature. Heather and Alan both had unusual objects. Heather’s were stress squeeze toys in various shapes including one which held special meaning for her. The stress squeeze police car was a lasting reminder of the 1986 Russell Street police headquarters bombing and the man who pushed her and others through a back door to safety. Not employed by Victoria Police, Heather had been doing work in the records office for another company on that day, which killed one policewoman and injured 22 people. Alan, a collector of shells for 70 years, said he had not chosen his most valuable object, but decided to bring two common garden snails, one of which was an oddity. Shells are usually sinistral with their aperture on the right but one of the snails he had stumbled across had its shell opening on the left. It was decided Collectors’ next meeting would be on Labor Day, Monday, March 9 from 10am and the theme would be metal. Jacquie See you on Monday 10 February 2020 at 10 am. We will start the year with “Favourite items - new or old”.
Dorothy Webber We started our well–attended November meeting with a slide show of all the items we had brought along during the year and of course our ‘Day out in Dookie’. Thank you, Robyn for taking all the photos and producing this slide show. It adds so much to the last program for each year. Thanks also to Bev who assisted and was present on the day. It was a very well-presented slideshow and brought back memories of items we had taken along. We also had two guests attend who we hope will become involved next year.
Our theme for the meeting was ‘Christmas’ - hardly original as we have had the same theme each year, but members manage to bring along different items each time. Bev brought along a beautiful old tureen and plate and silver serving utensils which her grandmother always used at Christmas. Wilma had a tree made out of horseshoes with decorations hanging from it. Most of us had Christmas baubles and or plates all with a Christmas theme. Collectors will commence again in February 2020. Best wishes to all for a happy and safe Christmas. Judith Borthwick Our excursion to Dookie was most enjoyable. Our first stop was at the Dookie CWA gardens where we had morning tea. These small and well kept gardens provided a pleasant venue with tables, bench seats and a barbeque, all under cover. We then back-tracked the short distance to the Doll Museum which is housed in the old Bakery building. The oven is still in the building and we were shown just how large it was being capable of cooking 600 loaves per day. There were trays of pie tins and the paddles used for getting bread in and out of the oven. It takes days to get the oven to the temperature required for cooking. Pam, the owner, cooked Christmas dinner in the oven one year and they ate in the bakery. There were over 2000 dolls on display in the museum. This amazing collection showed dolls of every shape, size and colour. There were dolls in prams, dolls in cots, rows and rows of dolls on shelves and one doll with broken leg had her crutches with her. The dolls were beautifully dressed and presented. As well as dolls, there were toys, games, a collection of old tools and much more. Following this we headed to the Chateau. A historic house at Dookie which is being renovated. Brian welcomed us to the Chateau told us something of the history of the house which dates back to 1886. Helen served a delicious light lunch in the dining room where we heard more history of the chateau. We then visited the former maid’s quarters before heading off home and toured the garden. Photographs - Robyn Desmier In a busy week the Collector’s group had a display on the stage at the Senior’s morning tea which caused some interest. Our varied display had a collection of tins, a green depression glass and Bakelite canisters, a beautiful 1940’s wedding dress and photo of the wedding party and a display of footy memorabilia.
The theme for November is 'Christmas' or bring something from your collection/s you love. Judith Borthwick |
About the Collectors' group
Meeting Times
1st Monday 10 - 12
U3A Meeting Room Convenor/ contact detailsDorothy Webber - 5762 2116 or 0412 263 071
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