Collections

[Anita Bensoussane]

A good buy, John!

[Fiona1986]

Thanks for those photos, Fiona. Looks a great collection. I especially like the blue and white pieces as one of the earliest collections I remember growing up was my mum's blue and white plates / ornaments that were mostly Delft or Willow pattern (she still has much of it, but with my two brothers and I playing in the house some of it ended up looking more like your pieces! ).

Did I also see the Falkirk Kelpies in one of the photos?

I get really excited when I turn over what looks like a plain white piece of pottery and it turns out to have a pattern on the other side. The blue "Willow" ones are amongst my favourites and I've found quite a few - they're probably all completely inauthentic, and modern but it doesn't really matter to me.

We visited the Kelpies for the first time last year so yes!

[Bertie]

Thinking about The Ship of Adventure for another thread reminded me of another collection that I used to have (which was inspired by that book) - my Ship in a Bottle collection.

I used to have around a dozen or so of them. Unfortunately, when I was moving house about ten years ago they disappeared. I definitely packed them, but it was some time before I realised there was no sign of them having arrived. So whether they broke in transit and the removal men jettisoned the box I don't know?

I've not bothered rebuilding a collection of them as I'd already got my other collections by then. But I have bought three (one tiny bottle!) since being here just to at least have some around to look at.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Sorry you lost your collection of ships in bottles, Bertie. I'm glad you've acquired a few more. They're appealing items and I can understand Philip being drawn to them. I have two ships in bottles and they always make me think of Philip and the Andra.

[Boatbuilder]

That must have been a disappointment to you, Bertie, when you couldn't find your collection. I have just this one ship in a bottle which I bought about 30 years ago and it is one of my most prized ornaments and gets treated with the utmost care. It's of the USS Constitution and the ship is all glass as well. The bottle is about 14 inches long. I don't remember what it cost me then but I do know it wasn't cheap.

However, the original ship has only three main masts, so I don't know why this was made with four, but I don't care as I like it.

[Anita Bensoussane]

It's nice that it's a replica of a real ship, John (albeit with an extra mast!)

[Bertie]

Thanks Anita and Boatbuilder.
Yes, it was very disappointing. One of my collection that broke was a glass ship as well, Boatbuilder, but it certainly wasn't as lovely as yours. That's a beauty!

[Katharine]

That is a shame about the missing ships in bottles.

I bought my husband one for his 21st birthday, but I've no idea where it is now. Probably in a box in our loft I expect, or even possibly still at his parents' house.

As far as I can remember, it's not been on display in either of our houses, so I'm now wondering if he left it behind when he moved out of his parents.

[Moonraker]

I love bottles, especially when they contain beer.

[Boatbuilder]

I prefer them when they're empty - and the beer has been poured into my glass. (I don't drink directly out of the bottles )

[Wolfgang]

That must have been a disappointment to you, Bertie, when you couldn't find your collection. I have just this one ship in a bottle which I bought about 30 years ago and it is one of my most prized ornaments and gets treated with the utmost care. It's of the USS Constitution and the ship is all glass as well. The bottle is about 14 inches long. I don't remember what it cost me then but I do know it wasn't cheap.

However, the original ship has only three main masts, so I don't know why this was made with four, but I don't care as I like it.

That reminds me that LEGO also had a model of the USS Constitution for sale - with three masts though.

[Moonraker]

I don't drink directly out of the bottles

Neither do I! It is one of my pet hates to see people (almost on every TV drama, now) swigging out of bottles. Imagine ordering a meal and being asked if you would like a plate. Mind you, plates seem to be under threat - I have had meals served on wooden blocks, slates - and in the 70s, in baskets!

[Boatbuilder]

I don't drink directly out of the bottles

Neither do I! It is one of my pet hates to see people (almost on every TV drama, now) swigging out of bottles.

Likewise, Nigel.

Imagine ordering a meal and being asked if you would like a plate. Mind you, plates seem to be under threat - I have had meals served on wooden blocks, slates - and in the 70s, in baskets!

We always joked about asking for 'Soup in the basket'.

[Boatbuilder]

Two more £5 coins issued by the Royal Mint that I have added to my collection in the past week, one of which also included a set of stamps issued by Royal Mail at the same time.

The obverse of both coins is identical, and one of the coins also mentions an EBS member.

It would be good if others who collect memorabilia could post some pictures of their collections as well. I know Fiona posted links to some of her pictures of Sea Pottery.

[Stephen]

I had a very bizarre one as a child of the 80s.

For a while, I used to collect cigarette adverts from magazines!

Thinking back, it sounds strange I could do this without any fuss, but once Mum had finished with Woman's Own or whichever one it was, she'd let me cut these pages out and keep them in a pile. They just seemed so weirdly beautiful; maybe it was an early eye for art. I'm sure the first one I'd ever noticed was for Marlboro, showing what was presumably New York City with a gigantic red and white packet in the place of a skyscraper, and it just kind of went from there. As well as Marlboro, I remember John Player Special was a favourite with captions such as "The Empire Strikes Black..." There'd also be the likes of Silk Cut, Rothmans and Peter Stuyvesant.

And in case you're wondering, I've never had any desire to smoke myself, so the power of advertising didn't work with this little boy! It was just the adverts themselves that caught my eye. As well as the pictures, I'd cut out the Government Health Warnings at the bottom which would explain if a brand was Low Tar or Medium Tar (I'm pretty sure High Tar didn't exist in the 1980s).

Strange times!