Geelong Bottle & Collectables Club IncVolume 78 February-March 2011

Club’s fab five at 2011 National

WE ARE THECHAMPIONS

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

in one continuous array that was a standout in terms of size and numbers. No less dazzling was Otto Skorzeny’s fabulous coloured Codds, another worthy first prize winner.

But by the same token, Geelong’s 2010 show did not suffer by comparison in terms of the competitive displays on offer.

We may not have had as many entries, but the quality was just as good in many of the categories.

That said, a number of competitors at both shows still clearly prefer to let their bottles speak for themselves and gave little thought to displaying their pieces to best advantage.

With the number of free and

Roycroft, John Trainor, Charlie and Bev Tysoe, Jim and Sandy Bell.

The amount of gold that has been won from the Bendigo reefs over the past 150 years is staggering, as were some of the treasures on display.

No fewer than five collectors displayed their internal threads

The bottle collecting community turned the clock back in April, staging the

2011 national show in Bendigo, the city that hosted the first ever national 40 years earlier.

It was a fitting tribute for both the hobby and a city that has been built on the treasures of the past. And Geelong club members were 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.

GREAT SPACE: The vast interior of the Bendigo Exhibition Hall made negotiating around the 2011 national a breeze.

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

relived at 2011 national show

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 acquisi-tions.

“THIS CLOSE”: Dave Smith perhaps showing how far away he was from his latest dream bottle

RARE PAIR: The light blue George Wilmot Colac ginger beer ($4750) and Clifton Springs eight-sided maugham ($1000)

COMBINED EFFORT: Five collectors combined to produce this seamless array of internal threads.

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 Lowen-thal weighs up another potential purchase.

Fulfilling a dream wish list

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

Well, 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

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?

As 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.