Showing posts with label Morayfield Antique and Collectables Show. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Morayfield Antique and Collectables Show. Show all posts

Tuesday, 25 September 2012

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.

Friday, 18 May 2012

Old Pharmacist's Prescription Book


We had spent most of the day at the recent Caloundra show and were getting tired and ready to go home.  I told my wife, Karen, that I just wanted to say goodbye to some of my collector friends from Melbourne, who each year make the pilgrimage to Queensland to sell a few bits and pieces at this show.  Karen was patiently waiting for me while I was having a good old natter to my friends when she spotted a book for sale on their stall.  She eagerly waited for me to finish talking to announce her discovery, knowing full well that this was just the sort of item that I had been looking for for my pharmaceutical collection.  Needless to say, I also got excited about her find and had to have it for myself.  I didn't even quibble over the price and was only too happy to buy it from my friends.  I would never have known what I had almost missed if I hadn't gone back to say goodbye to them.

This book is probably my favourite find from the show.  It's an old leather bound pharmacists prescription book from 1922/23 from, I believe, a Middle Park pharmacy in Melbourne.  Middle park is a very old inner city suburb between Albert Park and Port Phillip Bay, just north of St. Kilda. 



The book has nicely decorated page edges.  Edge decoration or fore-edge painting is the decoration of the edges of the pages of a book, visible when the book is closed.


It is quite a large volume being 42cm long, almost 20cm wide and 5.5cm thick.  It contains a complete list of all the prescriptions issued by this Middle Park pharmacy from the 20th of July 1922 to the 19th of June 1923.  Each page contains customer's names, exactly what was dispensed to them (sometimes with instructions on how to take the remedy) and the prices they paid.  The only address that I could find in the book is on one of the front pages and says 83 Carter Street, Middle Park.  Is this the address of the pharmacy?  Probably not as Google maps shows this to be a domestic dwelling, although it fits the period well, probably from the late 1800s to early 1900s.  Maybe this was the pharmacist's own home address and he worked from out of his home.  Just to muddy the waters a little more, above this address is written a name that looks like "Miss Bushell".  Could the pharmacist have been a woman or does this name and address have nothing at all to do with the pharmacy?  We will probably never know.

Below are some photos of some of the pages of this book.  It is interesting to note that there are many different names signed at the ends of each prescription.  This seems to indicate that there were a number of different pharmacists using the same book.  I would expect this to be the case in a chemist shop today but not in an early pharmacy of the 1920s.  Maybe this book actually came from a large pharmacy right in the city that employed a number of different pharmacists?  Another interesting thing to note is that the pharmacy was obviously open on Christmas day as evident by the number of prescriptions issued on the 25th of December.



                                 


















Look out for this book on my Pharmacy Dispensing Department display at the September 22nd Antiques & Collectors Fair at Morayfield Leisure Centre later this year. This fair will be hosted by the Queensland Historical Bottle & Collectables Club.



Tuesday, 17 April 2012

2011 Morayfield Antique & Collectables Show Report

My copy of The Australian Bottle & Collectables Review (April - June, 2012) arrived in the mail last week.  This magazine is essential reading for all Australian bottle collectors and this issue included a report of last years Antique & Collectables Show held at Morayfield, Queensland.  The show was hosted by The Queensland Historical Bottle & Collectables Club of which I am a member.

I had four displays entered in this show and was fortunate enough to win a few awards for my efforts.  Following is a photo of the report from this magazine with a close up of my Celluloid display which won Best Collectables Display of the show.




And below are some actual photos from the big day

My Celluloid display amongst other displays 

Best Collectables Display trophy presentation

Some favourite celluloid items from my collection


Below are the 4 displays that I entered.

Celluloid Display
Baby Feeder Display
Pharmaceutical Paraphernalia Display
Kitchenalia Display


I am already planning my displays for this years show in September.
               
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