The Collectors
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Thursday 15 September 2005
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This week on Collectors: right out of the box - cornflake collectables; beautiful bejewelled beetles; and all you will ever need to know about china...oh, and porcelain.
Justin Murphy is out in the auction room. Under The Hammer this week is an Epergne - a large table centrepiece that has a frame with extended arms that support holders, like for flowers or fruit. What will it fetch at auction?
Now it’s time for this week’s passionate collector. Barry Divola collects Crater Critters. What are they? Little plastic giveaway toys. For just two years, in 1968, and again in 1972, plastic creatures were to be found in the bottom of a certain breakfast cereal box. Simple pleasures then, but these days they are pursued as if made of pure gold.
To our Museum Piece for the week: insects are easy for amateurs to collect, remember your childhood butterfly collection? But when the collector is a former CSIRO Entomologist, some one who studies and collects bugs, then the result can be spectacular which is about the right word to describe this.
What is this week’s Mystery Item? Have a close look and try to figure it out. Niccole Warren from the Tasmanian Museum joins the panel once again to tell all.
Gordon Brown invites us to the British dining table. Just over 200 years ago Josiah Spode discovered the formula for fine bone china. We’ve been eating and drinking from his practical invention ever since. But it’s not purely functional - china has become one of the ultimate collectables. Gloria Weir from Antiques Market visits the Andy and the panel and brings some of her Royal Winton collection, and also some Royal Doulton ‘Ophelia’ which is quite rare.
Collectors, the show that lives by the rule...“if you don’t speculate, you can’t accumulate!”
