Collecting: His treasures, add mine, full house!
Collecting is addictive
And your collections can take over your house if you are not careful.
Add to this, two collectors getting married and marrying their collections.
This quilt is part of my exhibition, entitled Collections, held in Perth, West Australia.
There are photos of some of my tins collection down one side.
Bob's stuff: Meet Jan T's stuff
Help! Our collections are too big!
When I first met Bobby he had more than 900 old tools. Also in his arsenal were two Cyclops® scooters and a pedal car.
Before long he had twenty Cyclops wheeled toys, and they take up far too much room to be on display, so were banished to the garage. I had to stop him from buying more or we would have had to move to bigger premises.
His bow saws are beautiful and are displayed on the dining room wall, while the tools which are mounted on old fence palings, come out from time to time.
I particularly like his spokeshaves, they are interesting as well as having lovely lines.
He has a new obsession: old Tonka toys. They fill the spare bedroom and are trying to sneak out into the hallway or the dining room. He does a fabulous job with his restoration.
Tonka Scraper before Bob tackled it
Tonka Scraper after he attacked it
What Jan T collects
- Old china plates
- Books, old or new
- Kitchen gadgets (I'm the gadget queen of the west!)
- Sewing bits and bobs from bygone days
- Art Deco vases — pottery or porcelain
- Old tins with trade names on them, like Arnott's Biscuits
- Antique Australian furniture — I wish I had more room!
- Ducks (I'll tell you later!)
Psst! Here's the story
A few of my tins
Pottery vases - from days of old
A tiny Limoges style vase - my stepmother gave it to me
What Bob collects
- Cyclops wheeled children's toys
- Anything shiny!
- Old hand metal working tools
- Old hand woodworking tools
- Bow saws
- Old Tonka toys to restore
- Animals
Spokeshaves - Old time hand woodworking tools
Used for shaping window ledges, chair seats
Three wheeler - Cyclops bike
Metal tools from a bygone era
We moved to much smaller house
We had to delete, delete, delete
Boo hoo!
We have had to sell/give away many of our collected treasures.
We still have too many, and as our next move will probably be to retirement living, many more will have to be deleted.
Some more of Bobby's treasures
His latest finds
A rare set of vise grips - Bob's new tool
Violin maker's plane - c. 1880
Bob is so pleased he found this on our recent trip to the South Coast of NSW
More of Jan T's keepsakes
One or two
Plates old and new - big and small
There's many, many more
Wall vases - from the 1920s (?)
The green and red one was my grandmother's and I got it after she died.
I bought the others, I just liked them.
Bob's on a mission to wear me down
His latest crazy idea is to get one (when did he ever stop at one?) old Victa mower to restore.
You know the one. The one with the petrol tank above the motor, and gravity feeds the petrol in.
You know the one. The one that was really rare.
You know the one.
I know what'll happen!
A yard full of Victa's. No, no and no!
What do you think?
Should Bob get his old Victa?
© 2016 Jan T Urquhart Baillie
