FROM THE EDITOR
Tough day in the office for Jack....
As I’m writing this column, I’m resisting the urge to turn to the right and waste a few minutes – okay, maybe quite a few minutes – watching the Pacific Ocean roll in to the Coffs Coast headland. We – that’s me, my husband Trevor and Herbie and Jack, our two dogs - moved 500km north of Sydney a couple of months ago, on a year’s trial to see how we liked a sea change. Ever since we began the magazine six years ago, we’ve always said it was a portable business – you could produce the magazine wherever you were as long as you had a computer and an internet connection – so we thought we’d test the theory. Testing being the appropriate word. Before we left Sydney, we set up a system with the computers that allowed Christine (who’s still in Sydney, working from dad’s office in Dee Why) and I to upload material to one another so that we could still use the same production system as when we were in adjoining offices. The idea was that I’d send files in the evening, and Christine would download them the next day, work on them and upload them for me the next day. Foolproof. Unless you’ve got a couple of fools working the system. After a five-minute tuition session with Trevor before he raced off to work, I uploaded some files to Christine, emailed her to tell her they were there, and promptly forgot how I’d done it. I called her to ask her how to connect back onto the server, but she had forgotten her password and neither of us knew where to find it. Later in the day, when we’d pestered Trevor for the relevant information, we discovered that if you upload several entirely massive files at once, the system will shut down (that was Christine); and if you start an upload, then interrupt it and restart it – several times, because it all seems to be taking SO LONG - you can conceivably send the other person several hundred versions of the same images (that was me). Evidently we did eventually master the system – otherwise this magazine wouldn’t exist! – but I think our livers took a bit of a hammering in the process because it all seemed so less complicated after a few glasses of red. Speaking of this magazine, we’re presenting a few features that we’re really proud of. One of our English correspondents, Judith Dunn, has written a superb story on the history of quilts, timed to coincide with the most important exhibition of quilting ever to be held at the V&A Museum in London. Leading on from that, our own renowned historian Dr Annette Gero – whose input into the V&A exhibition was important enough for her to be flown over to the UK – presents a fascinating insight into early quilting in Australia. And if you’re old enough to remember gathering around the wireless to listen to the day’s news and entertainment – instead of downloading an app on your iPad – you’ll love the feature on Art Deco radios in Australia, written by collector and historian Dr Peter Sheridan. Antiques are about longevity, so we’ve also included a feature on what we’ve politely termed Dinosaur Dealers. It’s all about dealers who have been in the trade for twenty-five years or more, and when we first had the idea we honestly thought we’d have twenty, maybe thirty dealers to interview. Well it turns out that many of the country’s dealers have already celebrated their silver anniversary in business, so we’ve started this issue with Part One of Dinosaur Dealers, with Part Two – and possibly Part Three – to come… We’re also very pleased with this issue’s feature on Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. It’s all about their shared love of collecting, and it brings a very personal touch to the royal couple. Speaking of personal, it doesn’t get much more so than Eric Knowles’ experiences on his way to Scotland for a study tour… you’ll have to read the feature to find out more. Hot on the heels of our feature on the Ottoman empire in the Autumn issue comes a report in the UK trade newspaper Antiques Trade Gazette that Ottoman material continues its upward trend, with the market firming up thanks to a series of sales held by the main auction houses in the UK in April. One of the highlights was a jeweled box made for the Ottoman court that sold for $3.78million; another came in the form of a polychrome painted wooden paneled room from Damascus, which sold for $325,000 in 1996 and brought $540,000 at its most recent outing. You can’t say ACPP doesn’t have its finger on the pulse! I’m sure that next issue I’ll be reporting on a surge of interest for shell dolls and glass flowers… And finally, we’d like to welcome a new expert to our panel for the What’s it Worth section of the magazine. Doug Mulley, from Canberra Antiques Centre (and Ellavale Collectables), has taken over the ceramics section following the retirement of Alice Bedlington from antiques. We’re very pleased to add Doug to our panel; he’s a well-respected dealer with a lot of knowledge, and he’s looking forward to helping our readers with their queries. So keep those letters coming… Julie Carter, Editor.
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