Geelong Bottle & Collectables Club Inc

Volume 77 November 2010/January 2011

GLASS ACT

Crowds flock to Drysdale festival

WHO’S WHOPresident: Dave Smith 0419 434 306

Vice-president: Peter Harding

Treasurer: Bob Bauer

Secretary:Tracey Elso

Assistant secretary: Noel Dawson

Librarian: Craig Finegan

Editor: Cam Ward 0430 369 146

Public officer: Kim Johnson

State representative: David Smith

Catering officer: Pam Bauer

Committee members: Tony ParsonsCraig FineganKim JohnsonNoel Dawsonand executives

This edition marks a changing of the guard for the

newsletter; it’s my last in the editor’s chair.Change is inevitable –

it’s what life is all about. Sometimes the change is of our own doing; sometimes it is forced upon us. My decision to move on after three years is a little of both.My work commitments in Melbourne,

coupled with a daily public transport commute that has swung from adequate to wildly erratic has cut deeply into my spare time. I thought I could juggle that and my regular Army Reserve commitments and for three years I did. But there were times last year when I just did not feel like going out on a Monday night, when I knew I had a 16-hour Tuesday the next day and really just wanted to stay home. But as editor of the newsletter, I felt I

needed to be at every club meeting, to record the latest finds and make notes on possible newsletter contributions. And in the end, I realised that a hobby should be more about want than need. There will be months when I will want

to show off my latest find and marvel at those of other club members, just as there will be times when I will want to finish my travelling on the fourth Monday of the month when I drive home from South Geelong station.I do not believe I underestimated the

size of the job. And I am glad to have contributed what I did. I’ve introduced

the newsletter to cyber space by putting some editions online. It’s available in an electronic format that can be emailed quicker than it can be posted – and in colour too – and I’ve changed the layout. All this is what I am passionate about and where I believe my skills lie.But the past three years would

not have been nearly as readable without the untiring efforts of other club members, particularly club president Dave Smith and secretary Tracey Elso who, on top of everything else in their own busy lives, found time to help me find new ways to fill the daunting blank pages every issue. Thanks, too, must go to my predecessor as editor, Peter Harding, for helping show me the ropes .Now it’s time for someone else to put

their own stamp on the publication.That’s the beauty of the publishing

game; there’s no one right way of doing things. Publications are as much a reflection of what the readers want as they of the people putting them together, and what they think the readers want.I tried to make the newsletter more than

just a record of the monthly meetings. For me, to do otherwise would have meant giving those many subscribers who attended those meetings, nothing they didn’t already know.Where to now for the newsletter? That’s

entirely up to the person who pens the next one of these columns. All I can say is I look forward to reading all about it.

Cam Wardnewsletter editor

From the desk of the editor

2011 Diary datesMARCH5 – CRANBOURNE (Collectors fair; Cranbourne Public Hall)5 – COOLAMON (Antique bottle & collectables fair; Up-To-Date Store, Coolamon)26-27 – YEA (Roycroft auction)

APRIL2-3 – BENDIGO (National show; Bendigo Exhibition Centre, Bendigo Showgrounds)16-17 – DUBBO (24th Bottle & Collectors Show; DRTCC, Darling Street, Dubbo)23 – BEECHWORTH (Bottle show/swap & sell day)22-24 – WARWICK (44th “Rock Swap” and bottle/collectables fair; Warwick Showgrounds)30/May 1 – CALOUNDRA (Sunshine Coast Antique & Collectables Show; Caloundra Indoor Sports Stadium, North Street, Caloundra)

Time to build on successes of past 12 months

Call goes out to help shape clubLast year marked our first

one-day show – and event that I will certainly

remember for a long, long time.I hope that every member

relishes for themselves a great personal feeling of organising, running and achieving our aim of “an intensive one-day show with a set up day and scocial function on the Friday” every two years between State shows.

The sheer enjoyment of our hoby shown by club members, sellers and Joe Public buyers is still shown by constant and huge positive feedback.

Collectors are still quoting the 2010 Geelong show as a great example of a new and fresh approach, commenting on how damn great it was and the fact that we were daring enough to “try something different”.

With the show’s financial succes, coupled with our fundraising barbecues and Market Day, hopefully the Club now has a more secure financial base to confidently tackle the 2012 state show in 2012 (October 26-28) and future shows.

Challenges for the future include rebuilding a strong committee and growing our membership.

We have already farewelled longstanding vice-president Peter Harding and he will be sorely missed.

My relatively brief aquaintance with him showed me an organised man with a passion for his colllecting areas. That true enjoyment of the hobby was contagious.

His guidance to me as a new and hesitant president needs to be mentioned again, as do his organising skills in layouts of the show and printing, whether that was for flyers, schedules or newsletters. Peter, his passion and his many skills all benefitted the club greatly.

Immediate past president Kim Johnson is also standing down from the committee. Again, her depth of knowledge and successful guidance of the club through the era of combining collectables members with bottle members will be missed from the committee.

Hopefully Kim can enjoy being an Indian and not a chief for a year or two.

Cam Ward has done his time as newsletter editor. Again, we have all enjoyed and appreciated your efforts Cam. The articles you have done and photos have made these volumes of newsletters ones to really look back on.

So who will replace them? Will long-serving members step forward? Will newer members come up? The annual general meeting will tell.

Irrespective of the outcome, new members are needed to build a membership base to ensure the GBACC continues to thrive.

The Drysdale festival of Glass showed that a few enthusiastic club members can generate fantastic interest for a club.

I have never been to such a hectic, busy event. Our display certainly generated huge interest and people were wanting to know if they could retire on the proceeds from their boxes of bottles at home.

Hopefully lots of those interested collectors will visit and some of those new visitors convert into members.

Our monthly meetings still turn up great items, don’t they?

The format of a brief businesss meeting leading onto our show-and-tell talks and chats over a cuppa seem to be the format we all want.

Don’t forget we are always looking for guest speakers. See you all next month at the Historical Records Centre.

David SmithPresident

VERSATILE: Whether it was running a market day stall or serving on the executive, the contri-butions of Kim Johnson have been immense.

EXPERTISE: Peter Harding (centre) in a familiar pose: happily sharing his vast knowledge of ephemera and the printed word with club members.

Stunning Festival of Glass

new members joined as a result of the festival; as a public relations exercise for the club, it could not be faulted.

And some interesting nuggets of information came to light:

One woman told David she thought all Clifton Springs bottles were pointy enders because of the many broken ones she

remembered being exposed in the cliff face by one of the many landslips at The Dell. She knows the site attracted diggers; one wonders how many whole examples found their way into collections and how many more lay waiting to be found.

The sight of a full Corio Whisky bottle prompted a memory in

coloured glass insulators.Adding to the informative

displays were Kim’s display boards from the 2010 show and a computer slideshow. The free copies of the club newsletter were gone before the show finished at 5pm and plenty of fliers about the club were handed out too. It would not be surprising if some

A venture into the unknown has turned into an overwhelming success

for the organisers of Drysdale’s inaugural Festival of Glass.

The festival was devised to “bring together the artists who work and use glass, the commercial and building industry who design and build with glass, the cultural and heritage of local glass and the innovations of glass for the future”. The public response was overwhelming.

Eager visitors flocked in their hundreds to the Potato Shed on Sunday, 20 February to be met by a glittering array of crafts, leadlight displays, arts pieces and demonstrations – almost 30 exhibitors in all. And there, sitting nicely inside the front door to the main show room, was the Geelong Bottle & Collectables Club.

The prime site ensured an avalanche of keen festival goers eager to learn more about the region’s bottled history, or reminisce about the types of bottles and companies they remembered from their childhood.

The show stopper was David’s ultra rare eight-sided Clifton Springs maugham, but it was no less striking than Tracey’s cabinet of uranium glass or Noel’s bizarrely shaped and gorgeously EDUCATIONAL: Tracey Elso explaining some of the finer points of collecting glass.

GLASS ACT: Club president Dave Smith (lower right corner) talks with a keen visitor to the Festival of Glass.

another visitor. Her father worked for the Corio Distillery and at home she has a collection of five different size Corio Whisky bottles – ALL FULL. She left with the club’s contact details and an assurance that even a photo of the group would create tremendous interest in the bottle collecting community.

So where to from here? The success of this month’s festival would surely indicate the potential for at least another one in 2012. And given that the variety of Geelong bottles displayed was only a small fraction of those

produced, interest in the club’s ongoing participation would seem to be high.

But there are improvements that could be made. The room where the club’s display was, while the biggest in the venue, was a purpose-built theatre room and not conducive to natural light. It did help show off Tracey’s uranium glass but some thought should be given to buying/building a light box for backlighting bottles. It would help make what was already a highly educational display into a real show stopper.

– CAM WARD

anything but half-empty

EYE-CATCHING: Tracey’s dazzling display of uranium glass was a real crowd-pleaser, judging by the reaction of this fes-tival goer (below right).

LONG OVERDUE: Dave’s prIzed eight-sided maugham made a homecoming of sorts at Drys-dale, just up the road from the town it was originally produced for.

ON SONG: Noel Dawson talks piano insulators.

minutes

October monthly meetingOctober 25, 2010

Meeting opened: 8 pmApologies Bruce & Elsie, Peter Harding, Anne & Darryl Phillips, Tracey Elso, Pam Bauer.Moved: Tony PSeconded: Jan Pocock

Minutes of previous meeting: Moved: Ron PocockSeconded: Joe Votava

Business arising from minutes: Honour board circulatedNew old old members now financial

Correspondence:Gippsland ABCC newsletterMornington Peninsula AB&CC newsletterThe Mill Daylesford invitation to visit centre

Treasurer’s report:Term Deposit $ 2585 Cheque Acct $4247 Cash Tin $108Tea Tin $0Swap & Sell Tin $0Moved: Kim JohnsonSeconded: Chris S

General business:Xmas breakup – 22 November. Donations for hamper and raffle to startCoin toss night – to be organisedBYO supper

2010 Show:Geelong show report read out. Great success expressedPost-show committee 16 NovemberBid for 2012 State Show in Oct – same time.

Meeting closed: 8.50pm

Latest finds1st Ern Taylor Drill No50 Patent 1889

2nd Tony Parsons Nash Patent Chas Cole & GAW Codds

=3rd : Dave Milk Bottles Kim J Horse Tins Joe & Dot V Rope Sign

latest finds

NovemberJan and Ron Burroughs Machine (circa 1920s-1930s) SECOND Disney rabbit egg cup

Dave Rosella chutneys

Tony One Trippa/ginger beers/ceramic labels

Peter Embassy pieces Souvenir of Ryrie Street Solomons Book Do you remember? 1964 Ford Falcon manuals Geelong tourist booklet (circa 1960s) 1938 Geelong Centenary booklet Silver jubilee newspapers Mystery object

Amber and Holly Swap cards

Amber Signed Megan Jones socks

Ross Geelong RAC directory

Kim Bushell’s catalogue =THIRD Davis Gelatine horse tin Gramophone needles

Craig Assorted Warrnambool bottles

Noel Pre-1900 wire strainer

Dot and Joe McPhillamy Brothers =THIRD The Encore whiskey jug

Bob 1939 Tilley Searchlight FIRST

SIZE MATTERS: It’s a fair bet there haven’t been too many smaller Geelong-branded bottles made. They are embossed W.E. PARDEY & CO CHEMISTS GEELONG (left) and DICKSON’S PHARMACY GEELONG and were among January’s finds.

minutes

November monthly meetingNovember 22, 2010

Meeting opened: 8pm Apologies: Alan SnowdonMoved: Craig FineganSeconded: Peter Harding

Minutes of Previous Meeting:Moved: Kim JohnsonSeconded: Joe Votava

Business Arising from Minutes:Honour Board – Finished and on display to be put up tonight

Correspondence:Card – thank you card from Barry & Jennifer SydenhamGABCC Newsletter

Treasurers’ Report:Term Deposit $2585 Cash Tin $ Tea Tin $120Swap & Sell Tin $Moved: Kim JSeconded: Peter H

General Business:Show cost: $5400Return: $7600 Profit: $2200Peter – Geelong photo in frame for salePeople’s Choice – Winner wants newsletter & details to join the club – they won a years’ membership when won the lucky draw.Geelong Business News: Article on Geelong CentenaryCamperdown/Timboon Rail Trail: Dave went to rail trail day with trains – was very interesting and they have a lot of history down there.Next years’ calendar: Feb 20 – Festival of Glass Feb 28 – AGM – brought forward to accommodate another function Mar 28 – Gen Meeting – Geelong Heritage Centre with guest speaker April 2 – Club bus trip to Bendigo National Show April 17 – World Heritage Day April 25 – Easter Monday – general meetingBendigo bus trip: Club bus trip to National Bottle Show, inc antique shops, etc. Driver please. Yellow Pages/Geelong Info: Club listing to be organizedBelmont Library display: Offer of free club display to promote clubBendigo car boot sale – Water logged – few good bargains to be found amongst the rain drops.Lancaster auction: Record prices for the bottles and collectables at Graham Lancaster’s latest auction.

Meeting closed: 8.30 pm

latest finds

JanuaryDavid US cigar jar

Alan 1949 Vickers Gin calendar (featuring Carbine) FIRST

Noel Wire strainer

Tony W. Morrison chemist bottle 12 small ceramic labels

Barry Blowtorch and raisin seeder SECOND

Colin Axes and military items THIRD Assorted bottles Magnifier

Jan and Ron Corio Whisky jugs Laurel kerosene bottle Minnie Mouse tin Lady and the Tramp plates ABC Cafe (Geelong) platter

HORSE POWER: This 1949 calendar featuring 1890 Melbourne Cup winner Carbine came home a winner for Alan Snowdon in January’s latest finds.

CLASSIFIEDSWANTED TO BUY

Auction catalogues – Christie’s, Sotheby’s, Leonard Joel. Decorative arts, collectables, furniture, jewellery,

etc. Glossy, full colour, great for reference. Were $2, now $1 each.

Discounts for bulk purchasesPhone Cam on 0430 369 146.

WANTED TO BUYAnything to do with Jim Beam, Coca Cola, ceramic Garfields

and Ned Kelly. Collectables collector.Phone Len Ellmer on 5224 1469.

Royal Doulton whisky flasksKingsware/Old electric jugs

Blowtorches, clean or dirty and any spares.

Phone JIM HUNTER on 5127 6420. Member of the Gippsland club.

SINGER SEWING MACHINESAnything to do with Singer.

Phone Bruce or Elsie on 5275 5450.

Matchboxes, labels, vesta boxes, match grips and Meakin china.

Phone 5276 1267.

Milk glass Vegemite/Marmite jars.Also screw top metal lids, any size.

Phone Bruce on 0408 527 741.

Geelong street guides and business directories.Phone 5266 1126.

Any Scouting memorabilia.Phone Shane on 5229 6469.

Pre-1956 telephone directories.Geelong & District or MelbournePhone Cam on 0430 369 146.

National Geographic magazines 1920s-2000s. Classic stories, great

ads. $1 per issuePhone Cam on 0430 369 146.

FOR SALE

Victa logo plateFor original model

Phone Alan on 5255 4773 or 0403 160 336.

Aussie fruit/preserving/jam jars Geelong bottles

Ceramic label milks and soft drinks David 0419 434 306/5243 4306

Geelong Bottle and Collectables Club Inc. The club meets on the fourth Monday of each month (excluding December) at the Belmont Park Pavilion, Barrabool Road, under the James Harrison Bridge.

Club postal address: Geelong Bottle and Collectables Club Inc. Box 5049 North Geelong LPO 3215