What do you collect?

Judgement Day

Well what about it then? What makes you tick, and makes your pulse increase when you come across it in a shop/saleroom/eBay etc?

Me, well I have been collecting everything since as far back as I can remember - probably the earliest things being animal cards that came free with Bird's (?) jellies in the 1960s. I moved on to beermats (picked up in hotels where we used to go for Sunday lunch) to cigarette packets, bottle tops, coins, stamps - followed by a prolonged and destructive period egg collecting as a early teenager which fortunately ended before I came into contact with rare birds. Twenty plus years collecting railwayana from tickets to full size locomotives which I'm only just recovering from and wouldn't recommend if you wish to remain sane and solvent! Along with collecting railwayana my interest in old phoneboxes developed - I blame the Dr.Who series for this - and at one stage I owned two full-size British K6 phoneboxes as well as a P+T one. A change in circumstances and lifestyle, in recent years, has led to a scaling back in my collecting and today the full-size phoneboxes have been replaced by more practical examples that fit comfortably on my bookcase.

So what does everbody else collect?





The Meccano K6 pictured above is just over 2 inches high and is slightly more manageable than the full-size version which weighs in at almost one ton.

citizen_p

old glass bottles if i find them in ditches etc.....milk (got a 1990 world cup one as well) /cocacola have about 5 in my window.

coins for a while, but it lead me into the one ill stick with, militaria (photos, magezines etc....)

arch staunton

I like the phone boxes do u still have I collect old ploughs,pumps etc for my garden .I would like a phone box like this to add if the wife allows that is.:o

Judgement Day

arch staunton wrote: »

I like the phone boxes do u still have I collect old ploughs,pumps etc for my garden .I would like a phone box like this to add if the wife allows that is.:o

No, I got rid of mine years ago - hence the meccano one - but they can be had on eBay and a salvage dealer in NI occasionally has them in stock. Expect to pay €1,000+ for one in need of restoration and remember they are awkward to shift. I will post details of the NI dealer if I can find.

The_Banker

Football programmes, specifically League of Ireland programmes of now defunct former Cork clubs: Cork Hibs, Cork Celtic, Cork Athletic, Cork Alberts, Cork Utd, Evergreen etc....

Also FAI Cup final programmes. At this stage I have almost everyone from the mid 1940s and still collecting..

Judgement Day

As my interest in collecting phoneboxes was caused by the Dr.Who TV series it is not surprising that I also collect items connected with that show. Of course, the Tardis is a fundamental part of any Dr.Who collection and while I fully intend to eventually buy a full size model this phone flasher suffices for the time being. Perfect in every detail this Tardis has a flashing light and makes the materialising sound when I receive a call on my mobile - how sad is that? The Cyberman, K9 and Dalek are all Corgi figures and very detailed - the Cyberman is one of the earlier scary type a far cry from the daft looking Stars Wars type robot which is now used. The tin boxed set of Cybermen videos was predicted as being a future collectable by Millers Guides more than 10 years ago but it is still available quite cheaply on eBay. The photograph is of your truly on Honeymoon in June 2000 at the Dr.Who Exhibition Centre in Llangollen, North Wales - and no, that's not the wife!

Degsy

Mousey- wrote: »

old glass bottles if i find them in ditches etc.....milk (got a 1990 world cup one as well) /cocacola have about 5 in my window.

coins for a while, but it lead me into the one ill stick with, militaria (photos, magezines etc....)

If you're looking for any 100 year old+ glass bottles(hand made) drop me a pm.

Judgement Day

Degsy wrote: »

If you're looking for any 100 year old+ glass bottles(hand made) drop me a pm.

Any Irish stoneware ginger beer bottles?

Judgement Day

As one things leads to another I also collect postboxes - formerly full size ones but like the phoneboxes I have now downsized to miniatures that fit on the bookcase. Decent, high quality boxes are hard to come by and the two smaller ones here are a diecast alloy and very detailed - royal ciphers etc. They were made in England some years ago under licence to the Royal Mail - sometimes to be found on eBay.
The larger green one was made in China as part of a World series - it is a British Penfold box from the 1860s and is painted in the Royal Mail heritage colour scheme hence its Irish appearance. It is a really superb example, heavily built and all the details of collection times etc can clearly be read with a magnifying glass! They are available through the Hong Kong Post Office but the manufacturer appears to have disappeared off the face of the earth. They are comparatively cheap and are posted by registered mail see more info here: http://www.shopthrupost.hk/product_listing.jsp?catid=CA51&ad=none
The book is a recently published work published by An Post (available online here http://www.irishstamps.ie) or from the GPO in O'Connell Street, and is a lavish production which I can highly recommend. I will return to this subject shortly.

Blade

Judgement Day wrote: »

As one things leads to another I also collect postboxes - formerly full size ones but like the phoneboxes I have now downsized to miniatures that fit on the bookcase.[/IMG]

Do you still have any full sized ones? Or know where they can be got?

Judgement Day

Some useful links here - Unicorn kiosks are about for quite a long time. Shipping costs need to be considered and also the iceberg factor - there is a large base to the pillarbox that needs to be buried deep.

http://www.unicornkiosks.com/post-boxes.html

http://www.britishbits.co.uk/ Full size original British phoneboxes and post boxes.

http://www.englishphoneboxes.com/

eBay is another source but be careful there are many very convincing repros out there, even of the full size pillarbox. Here's a link for a pole box: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ER-II-Cast-iron-Post-Box-GPO-Red-Post-Office-style_W0QQitemZ320499471760QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Home_Garden_Door_Accessories_LE?hash=item4a9f41d590 not sure if it's a repro.

I know that An Post have 'officially' stopped selling off boxes but I would still think they are worth a try. I used to know a salvage dealer in Cork City that had a couple of very old pillar boxes and I will check for you but even ten years ago he wanted massive money for them.

ollaetta

Judgement Day wrote: »

So what does everbody else collect?

Old Irish postcards including, don't laugh, the 1960's Oirish diddle e aydle John Hinde ones.

Beer labels and bottle tops.

Old tools and implements.

Pre-1945 European travel books.

Militaria, mostly WW2 but always on the lookout for anything interesting or unusual.

Judgement Day

ollaetta wrote: »

Old Irish postcards including, don't laugh, the 1960's Oirish diddle e aydle John Hinde ones.

Beer labels and bottle tops.

Old tools and implements.

Pre-1945 European travel books.

Militaria, mostly WW2 but always on the lookout for anything interesting or unusual.

An eclectic collector like myself. I can go along with everything except the John Hinde cards - I presume you only look at them in a dark room - don't worry I won't tell anybody else!

I collect beer labels but still attached to the bottles which means they take up more space and forever need taking down and cleaning. Did you see the militaria link I put up? Some interesting WWII stuff on it here: http://collectireland.blogspot.com/2010/03/interesting-militaria-website.html

ollaetta

Judgement Day wrote: »

I collect beer labels but still attached to the bottles which means they take up more space and forever need taking down and cleaning.

ditto. I had a load of them up to about a year ago and it was getting ridiculous so bye bye bottles.

Judgement Day wrote: »

Did you see the militaria link I put up? Some interesting WWII stuff on it here: http://collectireland.blogspot.com/2010/03/interesting-militaria-website.html

Interesting site indeed. My wife's grandfather was in the War of Independence and had a full set of medals. I would have given my eye teeth for them but the mother in law gave them to a cousin in Scotland. Couldn't really complain not being a blood relative but it would have been great to have them.

beertons

I used to collect callcards and beermats. Gave them both up after about 3 years. Still have them in a box somewhere.

Judgement Day

beertons wrote: »

I used to collect callcards and beermats. Gave them both up after about 3 years. Still have them in a box somewhere.

Ebay?

beertons

Nah. They'll be a funny memory to look through in 20 years.

DERICKOO

please be careful what you say about what antiques you may have as there are those out there who would like to know what you have and a quick look back on your adverts tell a lot this is just my twopence worth and sorry to topple the topic.:(
there are scammers multiplying tenfold in the last 2 years. :mad:

Judgement Day

DERICKOO wrote: »

please be careful what you say about what antiques you may have as there are those out there who would like to know what you have and a quick look back on your adverts tell a lot this is just my twopence worth and sorry to topple the topic.:(
there are scammers multiplying tenfold in the last 2 years. :mad:

I know what you're saying but I don't think we are giving away too much here and anyway we can always highlight possible scams when they come to light.

DERICKOO

Judgement Day wrote: »

I know what you're saying but I don't think we are giving away too much here and anyway we can always highlight possible scams when they come to light.

for now we can always highlight possible scams when they come to light.
OK OK.

Judgement Day

Some more postbox info here. The British pillar boxes are available from the Hong Kong Post Office and are high quality items with superb detail - much better than my poor pic. They are, on average, 5 inches high and made of moulded plastic. Both books are out of print but available on www.abebooks.com and can be highly recommended.

Danco

Hi Judgement Day,

Really enjoying the two great threads you have going lately, this one and the Guinness collectables one. I've been lurking happily on both for weeks. I'm a Callcard collector myself, I've loved them since I was a kid. Got back into collecting a couple of years ago and have amassed a large collection since. But I'm a fan of all things P&T, Telecom Eireann and (to a lesser extent), Eircom related and I was wondering if you've ever seen or heard of a scale model of a P&T or Telecom Eireann telephone box for sale anywhere. I spent a good portion of my childhood scouring phoneboxes for Callcards and I'd love a model of one to put on my shelves now (especially since the real ones are fast disappearing). Ideally I'd like a Telecom Eireann one but P&T would be brilliant either. Unfortunately I don't think a quality model of either has ever been produced, I've certainly never seen one. Can you tell me if I'm missing something in my search?

Thanks a million and keep the posts coming on both threads
Danco

Judgement Day

Hello Danco, glad you're find the thread interesting - sadly I have never come across any models of Irish phoneboxes. I used to have one of the full size P+T boxes (concrete but only held together by the cap and a few screws, believe it or not) and an almost mint AB box for inside it. If I had a Euro for every time one of those coinboxes took my money but wouldn't put me through!! They were wide open to abuse too, and I remember finding one in Bray where the B part (where coins were refunded) had been stuffed with loo roll to prevent the coins coming out. How did I find out? Well it was on one of those many occasions where my boot, and knee, were being heavily applied to the box after not getting through, and it was like a payout from a one arm bandit fruit machine!

I am thinking of suggesting to An Post about producing miniatures of post boxes and if I get round to it will also mention miniature phoneboxes.

Danco

Cheers Judgement Day,

I'm confident that sooner or later the nostalgia boom will be big enough to encourage someone to start producing model phoneboxes. I just hope they're good quality when they finally turn up. If you can bend anyones ear about starting production please do!

Yeah, I can remember losing a lot of coins to tyrannical phoneboxes, usually because they had just been emptied of all their change and I had just inserted a pound coin, only to find that the number I wanted wasn't answering (but had an answering machine so I could be charged for the call). They were all Telecom Eireann phones though, I've never had the opportunity to use a proper P&T phone, not that I remember anyway.

I had my own experience with a blocked coin return chute when I was a kid, although it was a vending machine not a phone. I was buying chocolate or something in Busaras and the machine failed to cough up my change. A quick rummage in the coin chute exposed a clump of paper which once removed was followed by a cascade of various coins. Bonanza for me, but I bet there was some gouger cursing me when he came back for his days takings that evening

I'd love a model of an Irish postbox too so hopefully your petition to An Post is a success.

Blade

Danco wrote: »

I'd love a model of an Irish postbox too so hopefully your petition to An Post is a success.

Were old post boxes and phone boxes not exactly the same as the UK ones but painted over green?

Judgement Day

Blade wrote: »

Were old post boxes and phone boxes not exactly the same as the UK ones but painted over green?

Most Irish postboxes still date from the pre-independence period and boxes with the Royal ciphers of Queen Victoria, Edward VII and George V can be found throughout the country. They were just painted over with green paint and, in most cases, the ciphers have been left intact. When boxes are damaged it is usually the door and so older boxes often have later doors including the rare Irish Free State monogram - see below.



Sadly Ireland became independent a few years too early in terms of phoneboxes and consequently the Republic missed out on the attractive British cast iron phoneboxes (K2 introduced in 1926; the K6 "The Jubilee" box in 1936). Our stock of phoneboxes were almost all concrete/timber and few enough of these have survived. They had none of the beauty of the cast iron boxes which were designed as part of a competition run by the Royal Fine Arts Commission. The winning design for both the K2 and K6 boxes was by the internationally renowned architect, Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, and were a far cry from todays' shower cabinets. There are several good books on British phonebox and I will post some pics later.

Interestingly, I've just noticed that the box pictured here was produced here in DG (Enniscorthy) by Jessop Davis Foundry.

Judgement Day

Here is a full size version of the standard Irish concrete phonebox - for sale in the UK -details below. The colour scheme is correct save for the door which would have also been cream with small glazed windows like the side panels. The later larger panel in the door - usually perspex - was an anti-vandal measure.

FOR SALE : IRISH TELEPHONE BOX
Irish telephone kiosk. Now very scarce, even in Ireland. Reinforced concrete slab construction with hard wood door. Will be supplied with original A&B coinbox and directory shelf.
Contact : Unicorn Kiosk Restorations, Surrey, UK. Tel:020 8651 2436

Unicorn Kiosks web address below is a reputable dealer in old phoneboxes/postboxes - if you're feeling wealthy.

http://www.unicornkiosks.com/

TheIrishGrover

I collect original animation and comic art. I have a few drawings from the cartoon "The Iron Giant" Originally they are drawn onto paper, copied onto plastic, then painted and copied again. This final copy are the frames (24 per sec) ya see on screen. I also have a hand painted production cel (The one that is finally photographed from the Batman Animated series from the 90s.

I also collect drawings from comic artists. I have a few from an artist called Bruce Timm and one from an artist called Alex Ross

Judgement Day

The phonebox books - all three can be highly recommended with the Gavin Stamp one the definitive work on the subject.

Danco

TheIrishGrover wrote: »

I also have a hand painted production cel (The one that is finally photographed from the Batman Animated series from the 90s.

That sounds pretty cool. I loved that series, it was really dark for a kids show, and really well made.

Danco

Judgement Day wrote: »

When boxes are damaged it is usually the door and so older boxes often have later doors including the rare Irish Free State monogram - see below.

That is class!

TheIrishGrover

Danco wrote: »

That sounds pretty cool. I loved that series, it was really dark for a kids show, and really well made.

Well, the cels are available online on ebay and various galleries. However the one I have is unusual. They did one episode in a style atypical of their usual style, telling stories inspired by different artists/writers. One of the segments was based on Frank Millar's The Dark Knight Returns. This was the book that brought Batman back from the "biff, pow, whammo" campness of the 60's show to the general public. The comics, in general, were serious in tone at this time but this was the book that caught the mainstream attention.. Here is the cel



And a sample of my other stuff. These are two drawings from an animator and producer called Bruce Timm. He was one of the main people behind the Batman animated series and most of the subsequent Warner Bros superhero series of the 90's and 00's and was responsible for the look of most of the characters





The last sample is a drawing I have from an animated film called The Iron Giant (From Brad Bird who did The Incredbles and Ratatoullie). Originally there would be a hand drawing like this, then that would be transferred to plastic (cel) and hand painted. This then would be photographed. 24 of these for every second. Nowadays, even in hand animated films like Disney's The Princess and The Frog, the drawings are done by hand on a drawing tablet and digitally painted.

Danco

TheIrishGrover wrote: »

Well, the cels are available online on ebay and various galleries. However the one I have is unusual. They did one episode in a style atypical of their usual style, telling stories inspired by different artists/writers. One of the segments was based on Frank Millar's The Dark Knight Returns. This was the book that brought Batman back from the "biff, pow, whammo" campness of the 60's show to the general public. The comics, in general, were serious in tone at this time but this was the book that caught the mainstream attention.. Here is the cel



And a sample of my other stuff. These are two drawings from an animator and producer called Bruce Timm. He was one of the main people behind the Batman animated series and most of the subsequent Warner Bros superhero series of the 90's and 00's and was responsible for the look of most of the characters





The last sample is a drawing I have from an animated film called The Iron Giant (From Brad Bird who did The Incredbles and Ratatoullie). Originally there would be a hand drawing like this, then that would be transferred to plastic (cel) and hand painted. This then would be photographed. 24 of these for every second. Nowadays, even in hand animated films like Disney's The Princess and The Frog, the drawings are done by hand on a drawing tablet and digitally painted.

This is all cool stuff, especially the Batman cell, it's great that it's not one of those crappy cells where you can only see a hand or something in it. Are the drawings originals or prints? I'd imagine they're pretty rare to come by.

Danco

Blade wrote: »

Were old post boxes and phone boxes not exactly the same as the UK ones but painted over green?

Judgement Day wrote: »

Most Irish postboxes still date from the pre-independence period and boxes with the Royal ciphers of Queen Victoria, Edward VII and George V can be found throughout the country. They were just painted over with green paint and, in most cases, the ciphers have been left intact. When boxes are damaged it is usually the door and so older boxes often have later doors including the rare Irish Free State monogram

Shamefully enough, I had never even noticed many of the postboxes in Ireland match those in the UK in all but colour. I didn't realise there were so many variations at all. It really is the type of thing you could see every day and never really register. I'll be paying a lot more attention to the postboxes I pass in future. I think this is really interesting and I can't believe I never clicked into it before.

TheIrishGrover

Danco wrote: »

This is all cool stuff, especially the Batman cell, it's great that it's not one of those crappy cells where you can only see a hand or something in it. Are the drawings originals or prints? I'd imagine they're pretty rare to come by.

The batman one is one of my favourites. It seems simple enough but once you delve into the work involved and the history of the episode, you start to see the importance of the image. Much like Judgement's Day's post boxes. I would have thought "Wha? nutter" until I saw the photo I thanked and then I thought of the impact of those post boxes and the history behind them and I saw them in a new light: "P&T vans? I remember those". All of my stuff is original. One of them was made into a poster, one of them a T-shirt and another was a cover. I only have a few (7 drawings, one finished cel (Batman) and 3 initial animation drawings) And, yes, they are hard to come by alright. (And I've had to forfeit a holiday or two for some) I've been waiting for over 2 years a poison Ivy pic from Bruce Timm to come on sale and I got it last week.

But, I think, like all of you think, it's worth it. It's not their value. It's what prompted you to think "Yeah, I like that, I'll buy it". That's the real reason for collecting. I know a guy who collects a little bit of everything in the off chance that one of them is going to be worth a fortune some day. None of my stuff is going to be worth much more than what I paid for it but I like it, I like owning the original, and, hey, it's better than p1ssing it up against a wall each weekend.

Blade

Heres some samples of Roman items I've collected, coins, fibula/brooches, keys, rings etc.

arnhem44

Great collections lads,Blade those coins are in remarkable condition,very nice.

Judgement Day

TheIrishGrover wrote: »

But, I think, like all of you think, it's worth it. It's not their value. It's what prompted you to think "Yeah, I like that, I'll buy it". That's the real reason for collecting. I know a guy who collects a little bit of everything in the off chance that one of them is going to be worth a fortune some day. None of my stuff is going to be worth much more than what I paid for it but I like it, I like owning the original, and, hey, it's better than p1ssing it up against a wall each weekend.

The Irish Grover - I couldn't have put it better, collect what you like rather than what you think may increase in value, and perhaps it may in time, but who cares as long as it makes you happy. I have never consciously decided to take up collecting a particular type of item but have just gradually drifted in to it. In some cases I have shied away from branching into new areas of collecting as I know my limitations - banknotes/coins being an area which I have been trying to keep away from. I always have 40 or so banknotes/coins on my eBay 'watching' list but have, thus far, managed to restrict myself to the purchase of a solitary Queen Elizabeth II Nigerian three pence coin. I'm afraid of where it may lead if I once get started.

Judgement Day

Another of my serious interests is ceramics collecting - but, of course, nothing too easy! I collect crested hotelware and related items such as cutlery, menus etc. I restrict myself to Irish and Manx items and they have to be from long extinct concerns or else very unusal items. I have never met another hotelware collector so I really have no idea about values but that is not driving force behind my collecting. The delightful, handpainted side plate by Alfred Meakin Ltd., from the Broadway Soda Fountain Parlor in O'Connell Street was a Christmas present - I can't imagine that much else has survived from that concern. Another oddity is the Bord na Mona desert bowl by Arklow Pottery. I discovered a large hoard of this crockery in use at the Friends Meeting House in Enniscorthy during 2005 - donated. The final picture in this trio is a soup plate from a long gone Enniscorthy hotel, The Portsmouth Arms, which was burnt down years ago. Apparently there was loads of crockery lying about in the remains of the building but mine came from the Antique Tavern where it had been on display for some years. Much badgering eventually persuaded the present owners to exchange it for a Black & White Dogs figure.

Blade

On the subject of crested hotelware, I do have a crested soap holder from a local hotel which was turned into apartments years ago. Only cause I collect items related to my town though.

Anthony O Brien

As far as my collecting goes ive really stopped over the last year until last week when i started to get back into it again
i mainly collect coins and banknotes but i have bought alll sorts of different items that took my fancy over the years, ive bought some gems and alot of tat:D
when i was collecting i was always changing my collection selling the older stuff to make room for the newer items, you can see some of the exiting items of my collection on ebay under the name mr.systematic

i got some rare items this week, paid too much for them but i got three very nice and rare coins a 1848 english shilling with a mint error, a youghal farthing and a cork farthing
i will put up some pictures of them soon, can i just copy and paste pictures on here or do i have to use some other method? never put up a picture here before:)

Judgement Day

Anthony O Brien wrote: »

i will put up some pictures of them soon, can i just copy and paste pictures on here or do i have to use some other method? never put up a picture here before:)

You are best to use one of the FREE picture hosting services such as Imageshack: http://imageshack.us/ which you upload your photos to - very straightforward once you get used to it. Just remember not to delete pictures on imageshack which you have posted on Boards.ie or they will also disappear here. Hope you understand my poor explanation. Will be checking out your eBay listings later.

Anthony O Brien

thanks ill give it a go later
the stuff ive on ebay at the moment is not very exciting mainly common items

Judgement Day

Come on - lets have some more of you come clean on your collecting habits! In the meantime another of my weaknesses is for kitchenalia and a few of my favourites are pictured below. The rolling pin was purchased on eBay a couple of years ago and cost me about £30.00 - despite its rarity due to its fine condition, I use it at least once a week - carefully! The Horlicks mixing measure was bought for very little at the Un-Yoke Market in Wexford and also sees regular use; the Tongue plate cost a small fortune in an Isle of Man antiques shop ten years ago and is used for display purposes only.
The two mechanical devices - the "Beatrice" mincer was bought on eBay for £25, and is in good working order, and identical to one that I grew up with at my Grannys' and that she used right into the 1980s. No built-in obsolescence there! The other machine is again identical to one that I grew up with and is used for making breadcrumbs, and I picked it up for €10 at the Blackrock Market a couple of years ago.
Finally, the Millers guide is a valuable addition and gives details of the age of many gadgets and, more importantly, their purpose which is not always obvious!

Wild_Dogger

A nice little find of mine , was in one job lot many years ago .
I have been buying on a hunch if something is unusual or quirky.......
I found this amongst a pile of old eastern pots etc at an auction .

Its African , 17th century from Ghana .
A real early piece of tribal art !!

Fuzzy Clam

Judgement Day wrote: »

Come on - lets have some more of you come clean on your collecting habits! In the meantime another of my weaknesses is for kitchenalia and a few of my favourites are pictured below. The rolling pin was purchased on eBay a couple of years ago and cost me about £30.00 - despite its rarity due to its fine condition, I use it at least once a week - carefully! The Horlicks mixing measure was bought for very little at the Un-Yoke Market in Wexford and also sees regular use; the Tongue plate cost a small fortune in an Isle of Man antiques shop ten years ago and is used for display purposes only.
The two mechanical devices - the "Beatrice" mincer was bought on eBay for £25, and is in good working order, and identical to one that I grew up with at my Grannys' and that she used right into the 1980s. No built-in obsolescence there! The other machine is again identical to one that I grew up with and is used for making breadcrumbs, and I picked it up for €10 at the Blackrock Market a couple of years ago.
Finally, the Millers guide is a valuable addition and gives details of the age of many gadgets and, more importantly, their purpose which is not always obvious!

I didn't realise that those mincers were collectable.

I have 3 of them here. 2 of the brand "Spong" and 1 unmarked but looks a bit like the "Beatrice". Also have a Spong bean slicer and a French made "Mouli" parsley grinder.

Judgement Day

Wild_Dogger wrote: »

A nice little find of mine , was in one job lot many years ago .
I have been buying on a hunch if something is unusual or quirky.......
I found this amongst a pile of old eastern pots etc at an auction .

Wow, looks like you found something very unusual there alright - did you ever have an expert throw their eye over it? I must say job lots at auction are my favourites but really good ones are a rarity now. I bought an old suitcase half full of mud at an auction in the Isle of Man about ten years ago - if it cost a tenner that was the height of it - and I'm still selling items from it. It was so manky nobody else bothered rooting through it and I made sure to virtually sit on top of it during the auction. Rare Shipping Line crockery, ships flags and much more besides - there's a lot to be said for dirty, dimly lit auction rooms.

The well worn Isle of Man Steam Packet Company jug was one of the worst items in the suitcase and even it fetched 31 pounds for me on eBay recently!

Judgement Day

Fuzzy Clam wrote: »

I didn't realise that those mincers were collectable.

I have 3 of them here. 2 of the brand "Spong" and 1 unmarked but looks a bit like the "Beatrice". Also have a Spong bean slicer and a French made "Mouli" parsley grinder.

Collecting kitchenalia is big in Britain, and to a lesser extent here, but finding quality items here is very difficult. I find the car boot sale the best bet but be prepared to sift through mountains of rubbish if your looking for treasure.

Wild_Dogger

Another piece of African bronze I have is this Senufo bronze bell , 19th Century (Ivory Coast).

migozarad

Scalps,anyone?It's just me then...

Wild_Dogger

And a really early bronze heart-shaped box .
Islamic , and many hundreds of years old , but I cant date it acurately !

Islam expressed in its most beautiful form was on paper , and ink and penboxes became really decorative in the East . This is very decorative for the age !!!