Antiques At Hawarden

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31323, 20 March 1967, Page 2

Antiques At Hawarden

(By

WENDY WILLIAMSON)

The Hawarden jubilee show on Saturday included a display of antiques lent by residents of Hawarden and surrounding districts. t Photographs of pioneer settlers and early scenes augmented the display of china, linen, clothing and household items. A few of the items were left undated, but this seemed to add to their antiquity. The oldest objects of note were two beautiful handpainted plates, decorated with a romantic theme, which dated from the 18th century, and some pewter mugs, unmarked, and measuring 1 gill and | gill. The 19th century was well'

represented, arid provided much entertainment.

A missionary’s medicine chest, well stocked with tiny glass phials and bottles, came to New Zealand with the Rev. J. Bunby on March 9, 1839. Copperplate hand-writing in a school exercise-book was dated 1845 and family photographs on glass provided a photographic record from 1850.

Among the furnishings, a bead and gros-point firescreen dating from 1856 caught the eye. It was suspended from a joined metal arm which was fixed to the mantelpiece. A small greenstone axe, found near Orepuki in 1858, introduced a Maori note to colonial affairs. Scottish immigrants, travelling in the Brothers’ Pride in 1864, brought a tiny wooden cradle. As it was too small for a baby, it must have been a child's toy. Fashions in bridal and evening gowns from 1867-1882 contrasted sharply with a whalepot, and a charcoal-

burning flat-iron, patented in 1871. The first European woman to live in the district made a hand-knitted bedspread, a beautiful piece of work displayed to advantage. Its delicate white tracery was intact after 80 years. The log book of Saundercock’s store, forerunner of the present Waikari business, gave a record of transactions in 1907. One of the items popular on the list was a stone hot-water bottle, displayed with the book. Early sewing-machines, candle-moulds and an Edison gramophone caused much amusement among children. Some of the items not dated were a wedding veil worn by five generations, dolls more than 100 years old, a white bed-vallance, and a hair-sieve. Of interest to men were an old gun-powder flask with its accompanying measure, and a tiny shot-mould and fuseclipper. Early tobacco jars and cigar-boxes, in a variety of shapes and sizes, were also featured.