Market day for antique collectors at Easter

Press, 2 April 1985, Page 12

Market day for antique collectors at Easter

Collecting

with

Myrtle Duff

There will even be sterling silver, jewellery and plated ware. This could be just the time and place to find some unusual piece perhaps at a bargain price. If you have treasures for which you no longer have space, out are uncertain as to their true value, take them along on Easter Saturday. There will be experts in quite a number of fields prepared to give you advice, on the matter. The illustration gives some idea of the diversity of things to be offered, but the selection was necessarily limited and includes only smaller articles. I inadvertently omitted one of the most fascinating — a little half-doll from the 19205. These were made for attachment to various types of hand-work, sometimes sachets for handkerchiefs or night-gowns, sometimes teacosies, and often just crinoline skirts for use as ornaments. This little lady with her 1920 hair-do and hat must have seemed a litle quaint atop a crinoline. Now prized by collectors, two of these half-dolls were sold at McCrostie’s auction recently for $55. In the illustration are a Moorcroft bowl; a stone jar on which is pictured a Huia with a long, straight beak which, I am told, indicates that the bird is a male; an oriental - brass ornament from early this century; a Pratt pot-lid picturing a Scottish regiment embarking for the East; and a tin chocolate box used by Cadbury of Bournville. On the lid is a blue and white classical design, and the base of the tin bears the portraits of the three British Queens who had honoured the firm by their patronage — Victoria, Alexandra, and Mary. The stone jar is a rare one, made in 1928 for the Huia Aerated Water Company of Dannevirke and Masterton. It carries a warning that it is the property of that firm, and that any other person using it will be liable to prosecution. Any Moorcroft is soon snapped up, and the bowl illustrated is a good example. William Moorcroft served his apprenticeship at the Wedgwood Institute at Burslem, after which he became designer of art-pot-tery at Maclntyre’s of Cobridge. It was there that he began producing the ware

now so eagerly collected. In 1913 he opened his own factory, and continued to produce his typical floral designs. In about 1920 he introduced the flambe glaze which had been perfected, by the Chinese during the eighteenth century. Good Moorcroft pieces are never plentiful, but there will definitely be some available for early arrivals.

Pot-lids, especially genuine Prattware pieces, seldom linger long on any stall, and sell for anything from $BO to $2OOO in auction sales, according to the popularity or rarity of the illustration. There will be some for sale at the Easter "Buy, Sell and Swap” show. - Admission is free. Any profits from the venture will be used by the Old

Bottle Club to finance its second publication. This will be a comprehensive work covering soft drink manufacturers, pharmacies, herbalists, breweries, chemists, jam and pickle merchants — any firm at' all -which used glass or pottery containers. I am not sure that the boast “Anything from a Needle to an Anchor” would be appropriate, but if you

have a spare anchor why not bring it along and see what you can swap it for. Any inquiries about this fair may be made by telephoning 899-554.