Geelong Bottle & Collectables Club Inc Volume 78 February-March 2011
Club’s fab five at 2011 National
WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS
OUR FAB FIVE: Geelong club entries at this year’s national show (clockwise from top left): Tracey Elso and Craig Finegan (green glass – 1st); Dave Smith (fruit jars – 1st); Craig Finegan (goldfields oils and pickles); Tony and Claire Parsons (ceramic labels – 1st); Noel Dawson (insulators – 2nd).
Bendigo’s golden past is
GREAT SPACE: The vast interior of the Bendigo Exhibition Hall made negotiating around the 2011 national a breeze. Roycroft, John Trainor, Charlie he bottle collecting We may not have had as many in one continuous array that was community turned the clock and Bev Tysoe, Jim and Sandy entries, but the quality was just as a standout in terms of size and Bell. back in April, staging the good in many of the categories. numbers. No less dazzling was The amount of gold that has 2011 national show in Bendigo, That said, a number of Otto Skorzeny’s fabulous coloured been won from the Bendigo the city that hosted the first ever competitors at both shows still Codds, another worthy first prize reefs over the past 150 years is national 40 years earlier. clearly prefer to let their bottles winner. staggering, as were some of the It was a fitting tribute for both speak for themselves and gave But by the same token, treasures on display. the hobby and a city that has been little thought to displaying their Geelong’s 2010 show did not No fewer than five collectors built on the treasures of the past. pieces to best advantage. suffer by comparison in terms of displayed their internal threads And Geelong club members were With the number of free and the competitive displays on offer. among those helping themselves to the show’s riches in the Bendigo Exhibition Hall at the city’s showgrounds on April 2-3. Quite apart from their many acquisitions, president Dave Smith (fruit jars) and club members Tony Parsons (ceramic labels) and Tracey Elso and Craig Finegan (green glass) snared a prized Bendigo Pottery majolica glaze barrel first place trophy. Noel Dawson came second with his insulators. It was fitting, too, that so many of the names from the hobby’s formative years used the Bendigo show as a reunion. Reg Moser, still looking spry, was there with his wife and two children, just as they had all been together in 1971. Also seen during the weekend were names who have been driving forces in the hobby – Burt Hayward, Kingsley Durdin, Les Towe, Ross and Christine SHARING EXPERTISE: Noel Dawson shares his passion with some show visitors.
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relived at 2011 national show
easy to use computer tools now available, hand-written signs should be a thing of the past by now. And our own Tracey Elso was one of the few competitors who thought about using their own lighting to highlight their display. Where Bendigo did hold a decided advantage was in the venue. The Bendigo Exhibition Hall was a far cry from the last national I attended at Frankston in 2006, which suffered from acute lack of space between stalls and a disjointed connection between the competitive displays and swap and sell area. The Bendigo venue was spacious enough to allow competitors and traders alike to
drive into the venue and set up and was considerably lighter than Geelong’s usual Showgrounds venue. And while that eventually made for a lot of floor space to cover – the competitive displays were arranged along three walls, with the swap and sell spaces staggered in the middle of the vast floor – no one seemed to mind. After all, a national show is not the kind of place a serious collector wants to rush through. And as those collectors without early bird passes would attest, some “nuggets” could be found on your second, third or even fourth pass past a stall. CAM WARD
ON A MISSION: Late on the first day of the show Tracey Elso was loaded up and still on the hunt for a bargain.
MOVING DAY: Tony Parsons boxes up some new acquisitions.
“THIS CLOSE”: Dave Smith perhaps showing how far away he was from his latest dream bottle
COMBINED EFFORT: Five collectors combined to produce this seamless array of internal threads.
RARE PAIR: The light blue George Wilmot Colac ginger beer ($4750) and Clifton Springs eight-sided maugham ($1000)
DAZZLING: Otto Skorzeny’s prize-winning collection of coloured Codds.
BIG BOLD: Paul and Suzanne Gamboni’s eye-catching transfer-printed demijohns.
DEEP IN THOUGHT: Bruce Lowenthal weighs up another potential purchase.
Fulfilling a dream wish list
A national show is one event where those serious collectors can try and turn their dreams into reality. If money is no object, chances are that it’s at a national where you’ll find that one bottle to take your collection to the next level – even if you’re not interested in assembling a show-quality array. So that was a challenge posed to several Geelong collectors: if you had $1000 to spend, what would you buy at Bendigo?
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s it turned out, $1000 didn’t necessarily buy a lot if you were at the high end of the market at Bendigo. It would have got you half a repaired half-size Black Horse ale on one stall, or been little more than a serious deposit on a light blue glazed George Wilmot Colac ginger beer that was priced at $4750 on another. That same stallholder also had for sale a highly desirable eight-sided Clifton Springs Maugham for $1000. They – and many other bottles – were fabulous. But they didn’t “speak to me”. If I’m going to spend a grand, it’s got to have a connection to me. And as a collector who has never really specialised despite a 30-year interest in the hobby, that immediately means one bottle – a Black Horse ale. Tall or squat it doesn’t matter. It is the one piece of glass I would happily swap my (admittedly modest) collection for. And I’m not alone in that, which is why prices are now nudging $700 for prime specimens. The downside to that is that $700 is going to take a serious chunk out of my $1000 budget. I resolve to haggle. But that will come later. I roam the Bendigo Exhibition Hall looking for ways to spend. The Chas Cole aerated water with the lightning stopper top is eye-catching but I’m advised that at $350 it’s over-priced. The few demijohns I see have no decent variations to the six Sharpe Bros I own. I find a Cosmopoliet “man” gin in mint condition. It would certainly complement my Black Horse but at $585 I can’t afford both. But the appeal of black glass sees me settle on a sealed wine bottle for $295. I’ve always had a thing for
EXQUISITE: Cam’s dream pair – a Black Horse and “JH” seal – chosen after much legwork. sealed bottles too, especially the dated ones. I guess it’s the fact that Europe was turning them out even before Australia was colonised, so they’ve survived the best part of 250 years. So that’s it: a Black Horse and a “JH” seal. And I get $10 change out of $1000. I was also tempted by a colbalt Prices Candle Patent ($395) and a similarly coloured Summons Sydney blob top ($550). As it
turns out, Jim Bell is selling them all. Surely I can do a deal with him. After all, I’m paying cash. – CAM WARD
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ell, I never would have thought of picking up a mid-size Bollington airship square cordial – amint example at that – because I was beginning to think it never existed. As it turns out, the one I grabbed was the best of at least three
examples seen at the show – and cost less than half my limit. That means I had plenty left over to acquire no fewer than six Geelong region soda syphons – Priddle Queenscliff, four different Bollingtons (two with the airship trademark, one Geo Bollington and one G Blyth) and a Grigsby and McSweeney. – DAVID SMITH