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

​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

​May saw a wonderful array of TEA POTS ranging from 200 years old to the new, with lots of great stories as how they came to us.
 
June we are sharing our JUGS large and small. Once again, they will all have a history. 
 
We look forward to seeing you on Monday 7th at 10am.
 
Dorothy Webber

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

​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

​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