Real antiques for the keen collector

Press, 29 July 1986, Page 16

Real antiques for the keen collector

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with

Myrtle Duff

One quick tour around what is left of Barry Holliday’s latest consignment of goods from Europe caused me to regret that on a recent wet and very wintry day I Stayed cosily at home with books and television and missed the excitement of being present at the unveiling of this magnificent collection acquired during a three-month-long foray in Europe and Britain. Although many fine pieces were bought that first day and since, there are treasures still for discerning collectors. Barry likes to bring back what he calls “real antiques” — things made and used in the eighteenth century, or earlier. Tables, chairs, benches, stools, dressers, and cupboards which have never known the touch of the French polisher, their surfaces smoothed only by centuries of vigorous applications of a mixture of beeswax and elbowgrease. Lovely to look at, comforting to touch, and very practical.

The furniture is beautiful. I envied the fortunate

new owners but found the smaller wooden things, usually categorised as “treen” even more interesting from the collector’s point of view. After all, one cannot often collect furniture except when in the process of setting up a home but there is no limit to the number of small and interesting things which can be accommodated.

I noticed a mahogany candle box which could still be used to house an emergency supply, and would make an attractive wall ornament. There were wooden platters and boxes of all sizes and shapes, wooden armchairs, a smaller than life-sized donkey carved from wood, and a number of intriguing little food containers with lids which swung to one side. I was surprised that such a variety of homely, everyday objects had been made from wood until reminded that suitable metals were not readily available even if the local blacksmith had time and sufficient skill to make them.

There was no supermarket a block or two away with plentiful stocks of plastic or porcelain utensils, but there was usually no shortage of fruit-wood or other timber from which skilled hands could whittle and carve useful containers for domestic purposes. One small wooden bowl had been so treasured that it had been repaired in two places by the careful application of small pieces of metal.

Illustrated is a miscellaneous selection of some of these smaller wooden artefacts from various periods: a pair of candlesticks from the time of Britain’s first King George; a mystery object which seems to have been made for test opening a cask because its curved metal component has a tiny spiralled cork-screw like point; a wooden

lemon-squeezer; a mahogany truncheon and an attractively shaped food container with lid attached. It is always a good idea to get in quickly when you see a newly arrived consignment of antiques advertised. This has just happened at Village Bygones, across the road from the Holliday establishment. There seems to be .something to interest almost every type of collector so I took note of a few categories which appear popular with local collec-

tors; a large soup tureen to delight the heart of anyone who specialises in the famous blue and white "Asian pheasant” pattern; another large bowl in Wedgwood willow pattern, and a dazzling and varied assortment of ruby glass. When the Syrians' first produced glass some 4500 years ago it was a murky, greenish colour and for centuries all efforts were directed towards achieving a clear, colourless product When this was finally accomplished colour was again introduced, first as a decoration and later into the glass itself.

In eighteenth century England coloured glass imported from Bohemia was already very popular when, in 1855, a patent

was granted to Mayer Oppenheim, the elder, of London, for making red glass. The famous Stourbridge glassmakers had already been producing varieties for some years. It was recorded by a Dr Richard Pococke, who visited Stourbridge in 1851, that glass was “here coloured in the liquid, of all capital colours in their several shades and, if I mistake not, is a secret they have here.” Stourbridge has maintained its standing as the place of origin of the finest of English coloured glass and the cruet set illustrated is a worthy example. The attractive brass frame was originally plated but looks equally well in its present state, and the glass con-

tainers are quite lovely. The colour is graduated, almost clear at the bottom and darkening to a deep ruby at the top. Other pieces include a tall jug, a sugar basin with clear glass edging, small mug, a bell, and a delightful small tumbler with enamelled floral decoration.

Accompanying the cruet set in the illustration is a Staffordshire dog, a bulldog this time instead of the more commonly found spaniel. Beside it in the shop is a Staffordshire castle, another keenly sought category.

Included in this consignment too is much good furniture, of special interest to those who appreciate the light golden qualities of pinewood.