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Antiques DownUnder - Season 3 Episode 8 -
Episode 08
Episode 08
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00:00Welcome to Antiques Down Under.
00:29We're on the search for incredible antiques and collectibles.
00:33From private collections, historic homes, backyard sheds, museums and galleries.
00:38We'll be talking to the experts, the custodians and the passionate collectors.
00:42Coming up on this episode of Antiques Down Under, I take a look at the results of mudlarking in Australia.
00:50Everyone remembers the band Kiss and Claudia is in for a surprise.
00:57It's one of Australia's favourite sports cricket. I take a look at an amazing collection.
01:03And Lee discovers the history of Welsh Lovespoons.
01:16Today I'm with Eric, a mudlarker. What's mudlarking? Mudlarking started back many centuries ago in London.
01:23When young children would go through the mud that was left at low tide to get rope, glass, metals to sell so they could feed themselves.
01:34These days mudlarkers are after historical artefacts and Eric has a marvellous collection of what he has collected mudlarking over the years.
01:43Tell us a little bit about all the Chinese items.
01:47Well most of these, well all of these come out of the river, or the river bank.
01:54And I believe all these places where they were found had Chinese cooks.
01:59That would be market gardeners and all that sort of thing.
02:02Yes, yeah.
02:03That would relate to the gold fields period of Victoria, wouldn't it, with the Chinese coming over for the gold.
02:08And over here, on this table, you've got some real treasures that you have found.
02:14So, we'll go over and we'll have a talk about those.
02:21Tell us about these items.
02:23Well this one is a very early and rare teapot from the Bendigo Pottery, 1880s.
02:31And this one was dived in the Campaspia near Echuca and still come out in great condition.
02:37I've never ever seen one, so...
02:39Very, very rare.
02:40Yeah.
02:41Yeah, I think there's only one other one known.
02:43Right.
02:47Tell us about the bottles.
02:49This bottle here is called a Black Horse Whiskey and they're very sought after by bottle collectors.
02:55I've dove 14 all up out of the rivers and I believe they've probably been throwing in the river of paddle steamers.
03:04Yeah, or when they've been sitting there having a party and throwing a bottle in the river.
03:08Yeah, and this one was found in Millamene, New South Wales.
03:13Incredible condition.
03:14Yeah, for the age of it, been in the river for 140 years, unbelievable.
03:19This is an extremely rare flask from Glasgow.
03:28It's unusual to get something that old over here.
03:32So that would have come out early 1800s?
03:35Yeah, early.
03:36Or during the Gold Rush period?
03:38No, pretty early, probably early 1800s.
03:41Yeah.
03:42And you've got an item here relating to an early New South Wales police station, I believe?
03:48Yeah, this was found at the Nillikman and that come out of the middle of the river, believe it or not.
03:54We found two of these.
03:56Yeah, and they used to go on top of the hat in the early 1900s, late 1800s.
04:02Yeah.
04:03How we found that, I don't know, but yeah, being so small.
04:08Some policeman must have got angry with his work and thrown his hat in the river.
04:13Yeah, yeah.
04:18Tell us a little about this shot flask.
04:20Oh, this shot flask was found on the river bank.
04:23All right.
04:24And it's still in great condition for its age.
04:27Incredible being leather.
04:29Yeah.
04:30And surviving, isn't it?
04:31Yeah.
04:32And this was found up at Gerildry in New South Wales.
04:36Mm-hm.
04:37And couldn't believe it when we give it a wipe over with the mud and this popped up.
04:43We think the mud preserved it.
04:50And over here we have a reference to a cannon that you found.
04:55Tell us a little bit about that.
04:57Well, we were very lucky to find this.
04:59It's extremely rare.
05:00We found this up in Wanganala, New South Wales, in Nabilabong.
05:09These days it's just for collecting.
05:11And collecting and it's telling Australia's early history.
05:14Yeah.
05:15Which is important, I think.
05:16That's right.
05:17Eric, thanks for showing us the treasures that you've found.
05:20And the stories, what you get into doing mud-liking.
05:23And the pleasure it brings you, but also as a collector, displaying and telling us some of Australia's early history.
05:31It's very important.
05:32No way.
05:33Thank you very much.
05:34Today I'm at the Wentworth Park Antics and Collectibles Fair in Sydney.
05:52And Gabriella is going to try and guess what it is.
05:55Well, I have no idea what they are, but I think they might be some kind of counter for a game.
06:02So you would count the game with the different colours.
06:05They look like some kind of little nuts.
06:07Great.
06:09Mandy.
06:10Well, originally when you were battling the box at me, I thought it might be Smarties.
06:16But I think that there's some sort of counters, counting beads for a game.
06:25Very good.
06:26And the different colours, so you would have different values in your game.
06:30Very good.
06:31Thank you very much.
06:32Okay, thank you.
06:33Okay.
06:34Do you want to guess the mystery object?
06:36Head to our Facebook and Instagram pages to enter.
06:39Today, Antiques Down Under is meeting a KISS superfan.
06:46And I think I'm in the right spot.
06:50Hello, Claudia.
06:51How are you?
06:52Is it you, Colin?
06:54Wow.
07:02Colin, this is super impressive.
07:05Forget front row tickets at the concert.
07:07You've got front row seats in your own living room.
07:09I'm guessing maybe your KISS obsession started when you were a teenager?
07:13Yeah.
07:14I was about 14.
07:15I'm now 63.
07:16So the collection started 49 years ago.
07:23So you are Gene Simmons, the demon.
07:26Tell me about the other characters.
07:27Correct.
07:28Yes, I'm the demon.
07:30So they're spitting blood and blowing flames and all that kind of thing is what Gene does.
07:36All the characters are about their alter egos.
07:38So Paul's the star man.
07:40Peter Criss, the cop.
07:42And Ace Furley, the spaceman.
07:46When you think of KISS, it's all about the makeup and the blood spitting and the pyrotechnics.
07:50But there was a stage in the 90s where KISS were unmasked.
07:55They appeared and performed without their makeup.
07:57They did.
07:58They've done that for 17 years.
07:59How did the fans react when they first came out with that?
08:02Yeah.
08:03A bit weird, a bit different.
08:04They changed their style a bit heavier.
08:06Yeah.
08:07And then after 17 years, they seen the light and put it back on them.
08:12That was the greatest time of my life.
08:14I think we need to unmask Colin.
08:30That's warm.
08:31Yeah, that's warm.
08:33It's pretty Mission Impossible, isn't it?
08:35And now here's my new face.
08:37How's that?
08:38That's great.
08:39That was nice being my older ear.
08:41I suppose it was a bit of a bonus when you found the mask.
08:45The mask's a very special collector that was designed on Gene's face.
08:49That was Gene's moulded to his actual face.
08:51The costume is also an exact replica of what they wore back in 73 or 74.
08:57I love your shoes.
08:58They look nice, aren't they?
08:59They're fantastic.
09:01It looks like they should have smoke coming out of the nostrils.
09:03They should, shouldn't they?
09:04Yeah, for sure.
09:08You've got the stage set.
09:11Yes.
09:12You built that.
09:13Yes.
09:14There's nothing better than live music and this is as close as I can get.
09:18And your whole family is rather keen on your collection too.
09:21It's kept my family together.
09:23We've had a connection.
09:24You know, like now my grandchildren are coming through.
09:28Just behind me down there on the ground are all the clothes that my grandchildren wore
09:34that I've now got in dolls.
09:38My first born was in a Gene Simmons make-up before she was three hours old.
09:43I asked the nurse and she said, yeah, okay.
09:46I can just imagine the maternity ward that day.
09:49A little bouncing baby girl.
09:51Yeah.
09:56Classic collectibles.
09:57What have you got?
09:58Classic collectibles.
09:59Well, a couple of my favourites.
10:01A couple of pics from the show.
10:04Paul, I've got Gene Simmons.
10:06My daughter received Paul Stanley.
10:07Both have been played on stage.
10:09I see badges.
10:10Badges.
10:11I see trading cards.
10:12Cards.
10:13Belt buckles.
10:14Beer.
10:15Dispensers.
10:16We have kiss everything.
10:17And kiss is a part of, a big part of your life.
10:21Very big part.
10:22Why?
10:23Why do you love kiss?
10:24You have to love something.
10:25You've got to have something in your life, whether it be religion, whether it be drugs,
10:29alcohol, whatever.
10:30This is my thing.
10:31You know, you're not feeling too good.
10:33It just pumps me up.
10:35Gives a kiss.
10:37Exactly.
10:38It doesn't get any better than that.
10:44I love this pinball machine.
10:46He's got your outfit on.
10:47He has, hasn't he?
10:48So, when you were a teenager, you know, you were a bit in love with Kiss, were you playing
10:54this pinball machine at the local milk bar?
10:56It was my favourite.
10:57I went to it all the time.
10:58And interesting, because the Kiss logo with the SS looking like the German SS in Germany,
11:05they banned that logo.
11:06They did ban it.
11:07And I'm lucky enough that I actually have a German back glass with the actual SS on it,
11:13the normal SS.
11:17So we've got the family album, and of course…
11:19We've got the family album.
11:20Picture of you and Gene.
11:21Picture of me and Gene.
11:23How exciting that day was.
11:27Here are my grandkids, Hunter and Xander.
11:36Cricket, Australia's favourite sport.
11:54I'm here with Andrew with his cricket collection.
11:56A massive willow all around the room, even stumps laying on the floor.
12:01Andrew even believes he's a famous Australian cricketer.
12:05He's got Steve Waugh's baggy green on.
12:08Do you play as well as Steve Waugh?
12:10Oh, not a chance.
12:11Not a chance.
12:12Love me cricket.
12:14Yeah.
12:15You did play when you were young though, didn't you?
12:17I did play until the last three years.
12:19Did you?
12:20Yeah.
12:21What inspired you to collect cricket memorabilia?
12:23Several years ago, when I was actually setting my bar up in the shed, I was going to put a row of old bats along the front of the bar.
12:30And that got to 20 bats along the bar and looked really, really good.
12:33And then next thing you know, there was a pile of 50 in front of the bar.
12:37So I had to set up the room here to actually spread them all out.
12:41And then, and all the other cricket memorabilia, keep picking that up.
12:44It's just followed me home.
12:45Followed you home.
12:47I played cricket with four out of the five of my boys.
12:55I've had four of them on the same ground at once.
12:57That was great.
12:58Yeah.
12:59And they all like coming up here and having a look and yeah.
13:02Seeing what else Dad's managed to find.
13:05Yeah.
13:06I've still got three boys playing cricket.
13:07So yeah.
13:08Who's going to inherit it all?
13:09How are you going to divide a cricket collection amongst all those boys?
13:12Yeah.
13:13Next question.
13:17Tell us about some of your favourite bats that you've got.
13:21The ones I really, really admire are the ones that come off the army ships.
13:25They were army issued.
13:27Right.
13:28They were on the boats and they weren't supposed to leave the boats according to the writing on them.
13:32Right.
13:33Yeah, I've got three of those.
13:34And would they be from World War I, World War II?
13:36World War II.
13:37Mm-hmm.
13:38They were army issued.
13:39Right.
13:40Yeah, I've got a lot of captain signatures on the bats and a lot of ex-Australian players.
13:45And behind me I've got about seven of the Bradman bats.
13:49Right.
13:50All lined up.
13:52Over there you've got some cricket balls.
13:57That's the different colours.
13:59Yeah, that's just some of the different balls they use from time to time.
14:02I've actually found a platypus one the other day.
14:04That was a brand they don't use anymore.
14:06Right.
14:07Yep.
14:08And I've got one in a little circle there that's signed by Shane Warne.
14:11Yeah.
14:12And the white ball, that was a bit of controversy over that, wasn't there?
14:15Yeah, when it first started.
14:16Yeah.
14:17Yeah.
14:18They use them pretty readily now.
14:19Well, let's go around and have a talk about all of what you've got in this room and see what I can take home.
14:25Hmm.
14:26To add to mine.
14:27Yeah.
14:28Now Andrew, you've got a fabulous range of bats here.
14:38Tell us a little bit about them.
14:40I've just picked them up over time.
14:42A few of your famous Australian cricketers, ex-captains and ex-players.
14:46Yeah.
14:47You've got Bob Simpson here.
14:48He was the Australian coach at one stage.
14:50Sam Trimble, I didn't know much about him.
14:52Bill Laurie, we know about him and the pigeons on the radio, on the tally broadcast.
14:57We hear that all the time.
14:58And look at the condition of the bat.
15:00Yes.
15:01Looks like it had a lot of dirty wickets played on.
15:04Or hit a few pigeons.
15:06Yes.
15:07Let's go and have a look at what you've got down in here.
15:10In here.
15:11In here, this is where you store your Bragman, I believe.
15:14There's several different styles of Bragman bats in there.
15:17There's three different styles of the older bats with the names burned in.
15:22Right.
15:23There's two of the more modern Sykes and the Schlesinger.
15:25Yep.
15:26The V99.9.
15:27And the one beside it has actually been signed by him.
15:35Up the other end, I've got the Schlesingers and Pumas of Adam Gilchrist.
15:41Right.
15:42Yeah.
15:43He was a favourite to us all, I would say.
15:45Yeah, I think so.
15:50Andrew, along this wall, under all these beautiful bats again, you've got all these.
15:54Tell us a little bit about them.
15:55Well, Alan Border, I believe, was the one that got Test Cricket back on the map after
16:00Kim Hughes and the African Tour, which destroyed the whole team for a while.
16:05And he was the man that pulled them all back and got the Australian cricket team up and running again.
16:09Yeah, that was certain controversial, wasn't it?
16:14Yeah.
16:15Along here we've got something really, really special.
16:17And it just goes to show how good Australia is at cricket, doesn't it?
16:21It does.
16:22Australia, five, defeated England, nought.
16:26Can you remember that year?
16:28Oh, there's a few years like that, but yes, no, I do remember that year.
16:32Yeah.
16:33Well, that's Australia.
16:34And Australia's cricket.
16:35It is.
16:36Thanks for showing us your cricket memorabilia.
16:38It's been an absolute fun time.
16:40It's taken me down memory road with my father being a cricketer as well.
16:45No, all good.
16:57No season of Antiques Ananda would be complete without a visit to Ian's fantastic collection.
17:03This time, Ian has promised to show us his collection of Welsh love spoons.
17:08Let's have a look.
17:14Greetings, Lee.
17:15Nice to see you again.
17:17Wonderful to be here.
17:18We're going to have a look at a few spoons today.
17:20Well, I think we've all heard of spooning, but what is a Welsh love spoon?
17:25Well, a Welsh love spoon is not a very practical item.
17:30I wouldn't eat my Wheaties with one of these, but if I was a young lassie in Wales
17:36and my intended, instead of giving me an engagement ring, gave me one of these spoons,
17:41which he'd hand-carved with lots of symbolism, I'd be quite excited.
17:46I see why you would be.
17:49What sort of symbolism do we have on this?
17:50Well, there's all sorts of meanings.
17:52They're not just decorative.
17:53I'll just pick one up here.
17:55This is good luck.
17:56The horseshoe.
17:57The heart is love.
17:59And the balls meant the number of children they hoped for.
18:03Not very many.
18:04And the steadfastness with the lock and the key came up.
18:09But every one of them has symbolism carved into it.
18:13That one we're just looking at, that whole thing, including the balls,
18:17has been carved from a single piece of wood.
18:19Yes, they're all a single piece of wood.
18:22And if your intended was skilled enough to carve something as well as this,
18:28he could possibly build you a house or make you a kitchen
18:31or build a fence around the new property.
18:34The first recorded one is around 1660.
18:37And they probably existed before then.
18:40But a lot of things were destroyed prior to the restoration in the English period.
18:51What's your newest one?
18:52Well, I happened to be in Hobart and my wife said,
18:55you've got enough now, don't collect any more spoons.
18:57And these three long ones came up.
19:00One, two, and there's another one somewhere there.
19:02And I was travelling very light with seven kilos from Hobart back to Melbourne.
19:08And I had to go through the airport and I carried these tied together.
19:13And every person attending the airport wanted to know what they were all about.
19:18So they got an instant lesson in Welsh love spoons.
19:25The amount of skill that I'm seeing here is just extraordinary.
19:29Yes.
19:30Even a simple piece like this.
19:32Yes.
19:33How was that carved?
19:34Well, imagine the young man.
19:36He's got an idea.
19:37He wants to give something important, memorable to his intended.
19:42And he dreams up in his mind.
19:44Now I'm going to do one that swirls like this.
19:47And all he has is a piece of wood, something like that.
19:50So he would draw what he intended, then gets out his pen knife and starts carving away by hand.
19:58So he's turned a block of wood into a memorable piece that's not really usable, but it has significance in the Welsh culture.
20:08Even more amazing, this one again.
20:17Yes.
20:18Where he's even carved balls in a chamber.
20:21Yes.
20:22And the chain and the lock.
20:24Yes.
20:25All out of one piece of wood.
20:26So there's no joins.
20:28Like you go to the jeweller and they open up a link and put it in.
20:31With these, they're carved out of one piece of wood.
20:34So it's quite a skill carving a chain out of a solid piece of wood.
20:38I don't suppose there's much else to do for a single man in Welsh villages at the time.
20:42Well, there was no television, no internet in those days.
20:45Ian, I've never even seen a single Welsh love spoon.
20:49Right.
20:50Here's a whole collection of them.
20:51What got you started on this?
20:52Well, I have many collections, but I find the most exciting ones are things that people have not seen before or tend to be fairly rare.
21:03When I started to see a few of these around, I thought, well, these have a story to tell and they're very interesting.
21:10So I'll go for a few of those.
21:12So Ian, this is in a frame, but with another objects.
21:15Well, on board, they didn't have gift shops and you couldn't ring your family back home.
21:22So you sat on deck, long, arduous voyages, and you used available materials, scraps, and you made things.
21:30A little toy for the children, a sail seam rubber there, a splicer for your ropes for the rigging, a model of the ship.
21:39You used a bit of bone from last night's dinner and carved the ship on it.
21:43But the key one that concerns us today is the love spoon that was hand carved in the 1830s, 200 years ago.
21:51Ian, that's a wonderful story to go with such a marvellous collection.
21:54Yes.
21:55Thank you so much for having us here.
21:56It's been a pleasure.
21:57It's an intriguing subject and it's fascinated me and anyone I've ever shown this to.
22:03Now here's Carol, who's going to tell us what this wonderful item is.
22:17Carol, put us out of our misery.
22:19What is it?
22:20It's a 1950s Italian piece, Capodimanti, and it's lipstick holders.
22:25Ah.
22:26At least.
22:27At least.
22:28So there were some guesses that it was a music box.
22:30Yes.
22:31Right now it's not working because of their age.
22:33It's almost 100 years old.
22:35Generally, when the music plays, the ball in the arena twirls around.
22:39Ah, beautiful.
22:40Thanks so much.
22:41So it's just lovely.
22:43So I'd like that on my dressing room table.
22:45Thanks so much, Carol.
22:46You're welcome.
22:47Now that was tricky.
22:50Did you get it right?
22:51Don't forget you can guess this week's What Is It by heading to our Facebook and Instagram pages.
23:00Next time on Antiques Down Under, we take a look at 100 years of the Royal Adelaide Show at its present site.
23:07Come with us as we discover the past and the present.
23:10You can get it right next week's What Is It by Health Counter halë³µaton.
23:35You can take that and see her Pleasure-deling."
23:37Missed an episode of Antiques Down Under?
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