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What do you collect?
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05-03-2010 4:44pm#1Well 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and lifestyle, in recent years, has led to a scaling back in my collecting and today the full-size phoneboxes have been replaced by more practical examples that fit comfortably on my bookcase.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.3
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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.
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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!
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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.
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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.
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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.html0 -
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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. 0 -
for now we can always highlight possible scams when they come to light.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.
OK OK.0 -
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.
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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
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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.0 -
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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.0 -
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/0 -
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That is class!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.0 -
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.
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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.0 -
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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.0 -
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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.
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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.
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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. 0 -
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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!
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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.0 -
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!0 -
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. 0 -
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