Page 8 - BBR magazine 140 - 30yrs issue

Above: The North East’s very own John Yule (wearing daffodil in Gill’s memory) clutching the unpolished ‘Wm Row’ cobalt blue cylinder.
name of ‘A. H. Sing’ to beef up sales. In sparkling mint condition at £90. Robin Patterson hooked a pair of pot lids: ‘W. R. ROBERTS/ ARECA NUT/ TOOTHPASTE/ RUSHHOLME’ £40 and ‘KNOWLES “ESAULINE OR POMADE D’ESAU” “I USED IT” (pictorial of uniformed moustached general) £175. Following in Robin’s tracks Steve Pickering purchased a 2.5ins diam, pot lid ‘GENUINE CIRCASSIAN CREAM/ WHOLESALE YARDLEY & STATHAM/ PERFUMER’S’ (pictorial of angelic girl with ringlets) £350.
Paul Barker crossed the seas from France in search of ointments. He wasn’t disappointed as Chris Bultitude served up a magnificent 2.25ins diam example ‘DR. ROOKE’S GOLDEN OINTMENT/ DISCOVERED A.D. 1839/ C. ROOKE M.D./ SCARBOROUGH’
complete with original base.
Andy Hobbs showed me a humungus size plate,
21ins wide with the wording ‘DAIRY SUPPLY
COMPANY, MUSEUM STREET, LONDON’. He
took the plate to three senior authorities in the
hobby who all vouched for its uniqueness.
Phil Mernick chipped into the report with an 8ins
tall saltglaze standard hunt jug possibly Bristol or
London made. Purchased along with another jug from
the Fiddler-Taylor auction house for £50. The jug
impressed ‘PRESENTED TO/ CHARLES WEBB/
MATLOE THE PETREL/ 1865’. ‘Petrel’ assumed to be
the name of a vessel?
Noted on Stuart Mellenchip’s stall were a pair of Welsh blue
tops: ‘Wm HILL/ STONE/ GINGER/ PERSEVERANCE
WORKS/ LLANDUDNO’, £130 and ‘WILLM HILL/ REGD
TRADE MARK/ ESTB 1876/ STONE GINGER BEER/ PERSEVERANCE WORKS/ LLANDUDNO’, £55.
The eyes and ears of the bottle world focused on lot 203 in Sunday’s catalogued auction billed as “8ins tall, cobalt blue
glass wasp waist bottle embossed ‘POISON”. Out
of curiosity I took a ringside seat in the auction to
witness another monumental sale. I sat with Paul
Barker, bidding on behalf of a collecting colleague. I
was expecting a head to head duel for ownership of
this elitist of poisons, but it was a four way contest
from the floor (maybe telephone bidders too). Earlier
in the day, with a touch of patriotism, Pete Savage
told me he didn’t fancy the poison going overseas,
which encouraged him to throw his hat in the auction
ring. Well Pete definitely put the ‘Savage stamp’ on
another auction - with a full head of steam he saw off
all rivals by never putting his bidding card down until
the gavel fell in his favour, transpiring to be what I call
a ‘cheque book job’ at £7,400.
Just as I was putting the finishing touches to this
report Greg Prior sent me an email giving a fine example of how the bottle fraternity network co-operates with one another. Greg takes up the story. “A chance remark by Kevan Witt at Elsecar Spring Extravanganza alerted me to a hitherto unrecorded water filter of S. Willson,
chemist of Peterborough, due to be auctioned on 23rd
April by Golding, Young and Mawer of Lincoln. Kevan
kindly offered to intercede on my behalf and managed to secure it after some intense Internet bidding – at three times the estimated price! Even without its lid, it is a magnificent piece, measuring 21ins high 15.75ins diam. Stephen Willson
Above: Terry Goslings constellation of hair restorers. R: 1870’s ‘A.H. Sing’ amber hair restorer. Far R: 100 years of sun changed this hair restorer from clear to purple glass.
L & below: Paul Barker crossed the water & struck gold with the
Dr. Rooke’s believed unique.
commenced business in 1864 and
continued to practise until his death
on 14th May 1897. His son
inherited the business and traded
until the 1930’s. Curiously the insignia and the overall aspect of the filter is not in context with the chemist date of operation. Therefore research is
ongoing.”
As the spring show closed I could almost smell the brew up to the SummerNational. The lines of communication buzz: texts, emails and mobile phone calls to strikes deals, bottles put aside at the back of stalls and of
course it is about the unknown: the bonus bottles that surface out of the blue. Have a fab weekend everybody.
Will International collectors please ink into their diary our traditional photo outside the big green doors of Building 21 at
1pm. Saturday 5th July. Please make sure you’re on the most important photo of the whole weekend! Thank you.
If you have any special bottles to bring along, or a story to tell, please book yourself a slot in the big SummerNational report.
Above: Messrs Savage & Chipchase deliberate over the incredible Eclipse patent.
Contact: d_j_snowden@hotmail.co.uk
Above: Luck was in for the Easter prize winners, BBR’s very own Jack (famous for letting in last years Nat’l early entry queue before time!), Ruth Pratt and Jenny Mellenchip.
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