2012 Queensland Historical Bottle & Collectables Club Show

It's been a very busy last few months as preparations were under way for last weekend's Antique and Collectables Fair at Morayfield. It was the Queensland Historical Bottle and Collectables Club's, my home club,  annual show. Now it's all over for the year I will try to catch up on adding some new posts to my blog. This first post being about the show.

The show opened to the public at 9am and closed at 4pm. I believe that over 700 people visited the show this year. Overall, it was great success and a credit to all who were involved.

I entered four displays again this year and won three first places and one second place. Nice to know my efforts were appreciated. Below are the photos of my displays.

American Nursing Bottles display (1st place in the Nursery Bottle category)

 I always like to do a baby feeder display as they are one of my favourite things to collect. I usually do a general display covering the development of baby feeders over the past 150 years. This time, just to be a little different, I decided to focus only on American Nursing Bottles as I had enough for a 15 bottle display. I was fortunate enough to recently acquire a couple of very early nursers (the Americans tend to call their baby feeders - nursers) and these were featured in my display.

Dispensing Department display (1st place in the Pharmacy Bottle category)

Another favourite area of mine to collect is Pharmaceutical Items. Last year I put on a general display of pharmaceutical items but this year I concentrated on the pharmacist's dispensing bottles. I built a special display case for them. The idea for the sign 'Dispensing Department' came from looking at old pharmacy photos. The dispensing bottles (or chemist rounds as they are known) were always lined up on shelves under such a sign. This display also gave me the perfect opportunity to display my Pharmacy Prescription Ledger that I featured in an earlier blog.

Vintage Games & Toys display (1st place in the Games & Toys category)

I have enjoyed collecting vintage games over the past couple of years. I found the early Monopoly set at Collectorama and the Buccaneer game at the Caloundra show last year. The Schuco ferrari, Dinky crane and Donald Duck ramp walker are all my own toys from my childhood. I had hoped to display a tin of Ezy-Bilt and a box of Bilda-brix but they took up too much room. Maybe they will turn up on a future display.

Sir Walter Scott Miniature Bookcase of Waverley Novels display
(2nd place in the Single Collectable with Written History category)

This miniature set of books has always been a favourite of mine. I just had to show them. They also feature in an earlier blog.

Karen and I also had a stall at this show selling collectables and some other odd bits and pieces. We actually made more money from the stall than I managed to spend on the day. My purchases will feature in a future blog. Below are some photos of me sitting at my table of goodies just waiting for someone to come along and buy them.

Waiting for the buyers to come along

Potential buyers? Afraid not! Just my children and grandsons come to see grandpa. I really appreciated their visit even if they didn't buy anything (my daughter actually went away with a few freebies).

Me again waiting for a passionate Coke collector to come along and buy all of my Coke memorabillia.

Below are some photos of what I believe were some of the best and most interesting displays of the show. Hope you enjoy them.

A great display of Matchbox Cars. Every car, 1 -75, are featured on the stand at the top of the display.

Carter's Ink bottle display. This display belongs to a friend of mine. He really does have some fantastic blue inks.

Baby and Invalid Feeder display by another friend and member of the club. Some hard to get feeders among this lot.

More of my friends Baby Feeders. Quite a few here that I would love to add to my own collection.

Nice display of Coloured Soda Syphons. You don't often get the opportunity to see so many beautiful coloured syphons together like this.

This Favourite 5 Collectables display belongs to another friend of mine. The sailor's sweetheart shell and the carved silky oak panel are amazing. The Stones Corner pot is also another beautiful and rare piece.

Kitchenalia display owned by another friend. I didn't enter this category this year although kitchenalia is one of my main collecting areas. I did however manage to buy a piece at the show to add to my collection.

Millitaria display owned by yet another friend. He has been collecting millitaria for many years and has  managed to put together an amazing collection of items.

Some more of his collection. This time it's Trench Art. Items made by the soldiers while still at war and also soon afterwards out of old millitary shells and other discarded pieces.

An amazing display of Early Australian Convict Relics. Quite macabre but fascinating.  Where on earth did they manage to get the condemned prisoner's hood from? Can't imagine there would be too many of them around.

Miniature Earthen Ware Pipe Display. This is another great display of hard to get items.

I am already looking forward to next years show. Until then, I will keep on searching for those elusive treasures to add to my collections. Who knows what we will see on display next year.