Collecting Guinness can be good for you!
When it comes to collecting drink related antiques (breweriana) Guinness represents the very top end of the market. The most popular items feature the animals made famous by the artist John Gilroy in Guinness advertising from 1930 until the mid-1960’s. Carlton Ware produced a wide range of these animals with Penguins, Toucans, and the Sea Lion lamp (pictured here and once the star item in my collection) being amongst the most sought after items.
Guinness collecting is a seriously expensive business, and as such has attracted the attentions of quite a lot of forgers. Legitimate reproductions also abound so you have to be really wary or you can pay as much for a forgery/reproduction as for the real thing! Look out for signs of wear, especially on the base and also smoke staining and crazing – their absence is often a good indicator that the item in question has never been inside a pub and is new.
As a general rule don’t buy Guinness items in Ireland, as the quality isn’t to be had and the prices are usually outrageous. The internet is a much better option and eBay normally has several thousand pieces of Guinness breweriana for sale at any one time. Quality varies enormously and good pieces fetch staggeringly high prices but there is still the odd bargain to be had.
If you’re a Guinness collector look no further than The Guinness Collectors Club which can be contacted via its website at www.guinntiques.com Here there is everything that you could want to know about the history of Guinness, the advertising material, the breweriana etc and there is also much useful information about how to identify fakes – indispensable to the collector.
The official Guinness website http://www.guinness.com/en-ie/ has all sorts of interesting things on it including long forgotten TV ads – sadly though, none of the best ones!
Further reading:
Nobody with even a passing interest in Guinness collecting will want to be without a copy of “The Guide to Guinness Collectables” by Nick Fairall & David Hughes. This is available at a discount through the Guinness Collectors Club website but hurry, as I think that the first edition is now out of print.
Dublin Fleamarket – Sunday 29th August
Full details of this monthly event will posted on the market page shortly but in the meantime a late reminder that it takes place tomorrow!
Work in progress!
Sorry for the ongoing tinkering with the blog as I’m still trying to make it easier to navigate. If you can’t find what you’re looking for try the tabs at the top of the page. Car Boot sales have now moved onto their own page. Auctions, Markets etc will all shortly be separated out shortly.
Have a look at the Books page – the latest Healy Rare Books catalogue is out with over 1,100 books on offer.
26th August – Just started migrating the forthcoming auctions to their own page.
David
What do you collect?
I have a thread with this name running over on the Collectibles & Antiques forum at http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=394 and it’s well overdue on this blog. I will kick off on the subject but do please contact me and email me at collectireland@gmail.com with your pet areas of collecting!
One of my longest collecting fads – thirty plus years – is hotelware (ceramics, silverware etc) and while this was initially restricted to shipping and railway related items, I have lost the run of myself and now collect marked hotelware from Manx and Irish hotels. To be of interest they generally have to be from long extinct hotels or else very well known ones.
This field of collecting is back on my mind again this weekend after a nice find in a local charity shop – two coffee cups from the former Four Courts Hotel in Dublin – see pic below. I’m not certain of how old they are as they bear no manufacturers’ mark but I suspect that they date from the original Four Courts Hotel rather than the more recent incarnation.
Some years back my wife gave me a present of a side plate from the Broadway Soda Fountain Parlor, Dublin, an ancient handpainted item made by Alfred Meakin, England. Can’t be much surviving from that establishment? This uniqueness is part of what drives me to collect these items of crockery as anybody can go out and buy some bog standard piece of Royal Doulton, Belleek etc. but not these rare survivors! Another of my favourite items is a teapot from the Grand Hotel in Douglas, Isle of Man – a unique and beautiful item of unknown manufacture, and possibly the only surviving item from that hotel.
I have a large collection but never having met another general hotelware collector or come across any book on the subject I’m still feeling my way along. I will return to this topic again but in the meantime let me know if there’s anybody else out there with the same interest.
City Auction Rooms, Waterford – Antique Sale 30th August, 2010
R. J. Keighery’s, City Auction Rooms, George’s Quay, Waterford
Antique Auction – Monday 30th August 2010, at 11 am
867 lots of high class furniture/paintings/ceramics and other collectables
Now viewing daily from Monday – Saturday 12 Noon – 5pm and Sunday 29th 12-5pm
Full catalogue available online here: http://www.cityauctionrooms.com/
Phone / Fax (051) 873692
Email: info@cityauctionrooms.com
Victor Mitchell’s Salerooms, Mount Butler, near Roscrea, Co.Tipperary
Next Antique Furniture and Fine Art Sale:
Wednesday 25th August 2010, at 10.30am.
The sale will contain over 600 lots of interesting Antique Furniture, Interior Fittings, Books, Overmantles and many items of Garden Furniture including Bronzes and Marble Urns.
* If you would like to enter an item in the auction, please contact Victor or Anne-Louise at (0505) 21396.
Salesrooms location:
From Dublin: The salerooms are located along the N7 ( Dublin to Limerick road) , approx 76 miles from Dublin and 40 miles from Limerick. Taking the M50, which by-passes Portlaoise, drive through Mountrath and Borris-in-Ossory. Continue for approx 5 miles beyond Borris-in-Ossory, passing the Highway-Inn and the entrance is on the left hand side – a sign-board is positioned at the entrance front.
From Limerick: Take the N7 in the direction of Dublin, driving through towns and villages including Toomevara and Moneygall. Continue along this road which leads to the Roscrea Bypass, following the signs for Dublin and past the Racket Hall Hotel and Roscrea Golf Club. The entrance is just half a mile from the Racket Hall Hotel on the right hand side and a sign-board will illustrate it.
Email Address
info@victormitchell.com
Office Phone Numbers
Land Line (0505) 24000 mobile (087) 6888074 Fax (0505) 24001
Show Room Phone Numbers
Land Line (0505) 21396
Fax (0505) 22025
Summer Antique Auction at Matthews Auction Rooms, Oldcastle, Co.Meath – 10th August at 6.30pm
Matthews Auction Rooms operates on The Square at Oldcastle and this latest auction includes some 300 lots of antique furniture, paintings, jewellery, silver, glass, books etc.
The buyers premium is 15% + VAT.
Viewing today (Monday) and Tuesday. 12 Noon to 6pm each day.
Auction commences at 6.30pm sharp, Tuesday 10th August.
Enquiries: (049) 855 0055 or (086) 8414421
Email: matthewsfineart@aol.com
Antiques Fair in aid of Lifeboats at Royal Marine Hotel, Dun Laoghaire – Sunday 15th August
ANTIQUES FAIR IN AID OF DUN LAOGHAIRE R.N.L.I LIFEBOATS
Royal Marine Hotel, Marine Rd, Dun Laoghaire
Sunday 15th August 11am to 6pm
Our next antiques fair is a fundraiser for the Dun Laoghaire branch of the Royal National Lifeboat Institute. Admission to the fair is a €3.50 donation to the R.N.L.I., and inlcudes 2 hrs FREE PARKING in the underground hotel carpark.
There will over 30 dealers and lots of bargains, including vintage fashion, furniture, fine art, lighting, home furnishings, jewellery, collectors items including stamps, books, rare coins etc.
The DART station is 2 minutes walk from the hotel, and various buses also stop outside the DART station or outside the hotel itself (7, 7a, 8, 46a).Log on to www.VintageIreland.eu and click the link on our Events page for more information about the hotel, including location map.
Don’t forget, the fairs hotline is 087 2670607. You can text or phone this number to request text updates, or for information on any upcoming fair.
Collect Ireland 1st edition still available
Well, I’m enjoying the new blog as I hope all of you are. It has all sorts of useful features which allow me to see how many hits I’m getting, where they are being directed from, and while I found blogger.com good this is the final step on the road to a full website.
"Collect Ireland" - a future collectable?
I am just about to order another batch of the “Collect Ireland” guide from the publisher, and it would be a big help if anybody wishing to buy a copy (€7.99) including p+p, on the island of Ireland, could email me at collectireland@gmail.com to reserve a copy.
David
Navan Antiques Fair – Sunday 25th July
ARDBOYNE HOTEL, NAVAN
OPEN: NOON TILL 6PM
20 dealers will be selling at the fair, including jewellery, fine art and collectables.
Now that the M3 has opened, the Ardboyne Hotel is a short 20 minutes from Dublin and the M50, there is plenty of parking, and the hotel is famous for its excellent Sunday carvery.
Take the Navan South exit (Junction Eight) off the M3 and follow signs for Navan, the hotel is on the way into the town centre from the motorway.
Don’t forget, the fairs hotline is (087) 267 0607. You can text or phone this number to request text updates, or for information on any upcoming fair.
Collect Ireland 