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16 August 2009
Hello everyone
What a beautiful day we had for the
last meeting at Maurice and Carissa’s out at Freeman’s Reach. The weather
was perfect, some wonderful glass, and I was most appreciative of
everyone’s support for my first meeting. There were a few hiccups, but
I’m sure it will be plain sailing from now on.
Preparations are under way for
the Association’s exhibition at Linnwood House, and Lesley has more to
say about that in her report. However, I would urge everyone to visit
this gracious historic house at Guildford on Sunday 8 November. Even if
you can’t be directly involved in the exhibition, it would be great to
see as many members as possible (and your friends and family) visiting on
the day.
One of the reasons for the
exhibition is to increase the profile of the Association and encourage
new members. I saw an interesting article on this in The Collectors Weekly of 10 July 2009. Dave Margulius said
that collector clubs need to take bold action to remain sustainable and
viable. Concerns from clubs included members getting older, how to get
young people involved, and dropping attendances at shows. Most clubs
today serve two main purposes: camaraderie and friendship; and sharing
information about the hobby. Most clubs are very good on the first, but
not so good on the second. He argued that too much information is locked
away behind ‘castle walls’ and only available to members. He said that we
should put all our newsletters on-line, free and indexable by Google.
This proposal generated lots of comment on the on-line message boards
about what should be freely available and what should be available only
to members.
Brian Pitman in the www.cga
carnival glass mailing list in May said that the way to get more people
interested in carnival glass is to open our homes and collections to
people who don’t collect, to show them the sheer beauty and magnitude of
a collection of carnival glass. He said that the thing to do is to dazzle
people with a great display, to sweep them off their feet.
Later on in the mailing list
Diane Fry responded to some concerns for new collectors. She said the
bottom line is this – if a collector is not partial to a piece of glass,
it really does not matter the value placed on it by others. True
collectors have reasons beyond ‘price’ and a ‘value’ placed by others on
the glass. Using this standard, there is ample carnival glass to suit
every taste. I’m sure there’s food for thought in all these statements.
Like many other members (all
fellow carnivalistas), I enjoy visiting antique stores, auction houses
and second-hand shops as part of the hunt for those elusive pieces of
carnival glass. There are not usually many finds in op shops, but I have
had several recently. The first find was not one, but two marigold Swan
master bowls in perfect condition. Of course, op shops are big business these
days too, so the bowls were appropriately, though still very reasonably
priced. The nice woman who served me was quite shocked at how much they
were. My second find (in a different op shop) was an Imperial Grape wine
decanter (but missing its stopper), also very reasonably priced. The
third find was an attractive carnival decanter in the Sydney Antiques
Centre, which was the cheapest of all! Of course, shopping in charity-run
stores raises the ethical dilemma of what to do if you find a valuable
item with a very low marked price.
The next meeting at Lesley and
Bob’s is our last for the year, and so our Christmas party. I well
remember the happy time we had out at Orange at Vicki and Mark’s home
last year. As well as the usual raffle, we will also be having a ‘Kris
Kringle’ (Secret Santa), so remember to bring a suitably festive Kris
Kringle gift as well to add to the occasion.
Happy and safe hunting and I
look forward to seeing many of you at both the Linnwood exhibition and
the next meeting.
Andrew Mitchell
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Some of the beautiful carnival glass
on display at our last meeting
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Club members enjoying the convivial
atmosphere at the last meeting
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Back to Last
Meeting Report
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