BOOKS IN REVIEW
Tracy Martin loves Christmas, and I challenge There’s a short introduction to the history of Christmas before Tracy gets down to the real nitty-gritty of the book – what’s collectable about Christmas and why. There are some surprisingly recent success stories, including the 1985 Royal Doulton skiing snowman (now worth around $900) and the 1980s luxury Christmas crackers that are now highly collectable. Tracy also includes plenty of history for each collecting category, which is how we learn that the first artificial Christmas trees were produced in the 1840s using dyed feathers and wire, and the company that made the first artificial brush trees in the 1930s was actually finding a creative use for another part of its operation – manufacturing toilet brushes. Chapters include Christmas trees, fairy lights, tree decorations, the Christmas fairy, nativity collectables, snow globes, Christmas cards, Father Christmas, snowmen, collectable crockery, Christmas crackers, toys, bears, board games, books and film memorabilia. Delightful snippets of information include the story of fifteen-year-old Albert Saddaca, who in 1917 adapted a novelty light to make it safe for use on Christmas trees and until the 1960s cornered the market in Christmas lights; the rise and fall of the fairy atop the British Christmas tree; the history of the snow globe, which was popularised at the 1878 All Nations Exhibition in Paris; and the story of Tom Smith, who invented the Christmas cracker (he called it the ‘Bang of Expectation’) in the early 1860s and under whose name the Royal household still commissions special crackers each year. The marvellous thing about collectables is that really, anything can become collectable. Advent calendars, Christmas stamps, the Palmolive Soap fairy doll (she was a giveaway in the 1950s) and even modern toys that sell out in the run up to Christmas have all become sought after. ‘You have to wonder what the parents who spent a few pence on the 1973 Rupert the Bear annual for a Christmas gift made of the fact that twenty-five years later it’s worth over $50,000!’ says Tracy. In fact, she notes that one of the things that surprised her during the course of her research was how much is actually involved with Christmas. ‘I mean, I was aware of the obvious,’ she says. ‘but I hadn’t realised just how big a category of collecting Christmas memorabilia actually was. Every day I would suddenly think of something else to add to the book, which would then take me off into a completely different direction of collecting.’ Which is probably why this book is so good. If you’re looking for the joys of Christmas, you’ll find plenty to entertain you in its pages. Christmas Collectables by Tracy Martin. Published in the UK by Remember When, 2009. A4 size, 254pp, colour and black and white illustrations. RRP approx. $62. www.collectablesexpert.co.uk
Some of the best reference books are Kameny was born in Brooklyn, New York, but he’s lived in Australia since 1970. He developed a passion for Aussie milk bottles in the early 1990s, at time when the rest of country really didn’t see them as ‘a fair dinkum collectable.’ But with an energy that to this day belies his age (Kameny is seventy-three but has the looks and energy of someone two decades younger), he launched himself into this new collecting field and uncovered staggering amounts of information. Most of the book is in black and white, but given the limited number of coloured bottles in the subject range it doesn’t really matter. What does matter is the sheer scope of range presented, almost all of it coming from the collection of either Kameny, or his associate and collaborator Paul Walsh. ‘I was very fortunate to start as a dedicated collector with enough resources and experience from the USA to realise I needed to buy everything in sight, including collections,’ he says in his foreword. ‘At the time people called me The Crazy Yank, but they’ve changed their minds today as my collection is known to be the biggest alongside my friend and mentor, Paul Walsh. Between us there are very few bottles we do not have.’ Which makes this book a goldmine to anyone interested in collecting Australian dairy items. The book includes sections on important milk and dairy dates in Australia; milk container evolution; pricing; identification; embossed and rare bottles; advertising ceramic labelled bottles; the history of Australian milks; butter and cheese containers; go withs (which includes such items as wads and foil tops, milk tokens, cow tags and dairy equipment); and an extensive data base for all bottles and Australian glass manufacturers. It is profusely illustrated throughout, and Kameny’s style of writing is both informative and engaging. I learned that Australia’s first dairy was established in Ultimo, New South Wales in 1805; that there are seven phases in the evolution of the milk container; that at least two early Australian milk bottles were made in the United States; and that collecting ‘wads’ – the plug that fits over the top of the bottle and is drawn in by crinkling or a tie wire around the neck – is an international interest. There is so much information contained in its pages that Australian Milk & Cream Bottles and Dairy Related Items seems destined to become the definitive reference for its subject, a position it should rightly hold. In fact my only criticism would be that the design is quite basic, and sometimes the images are cropped extremely close; it would have been nice to see the subject matter given a bit more flair. In the end, though, it makes little difference to the fact that this is a comprehensive, informative and extensively illustrated reference book, and Richard Kameny should be able to look proudly at the result of his twelve plus years of research. He’s done a great job. Australian Milk & Cream Bottles and Dairy Related Items - A Comprehensive Guide for Collectors and the Curious by Richard Kameny. Published by Crown Castleton Publishers, Victoria, 2008. A4 size, 224pp, colour and black and white illustrations, soft cover. ISBN 978-1-8753-4277-x. RRP $39.95. Available direct from the author: PO Box 292, Rooty Hill, NSW 2766. Tel: 9864 5439. Email: gdaygday@optusnet.com.au
In the twenty-first century the digital manipulation Just one generation after the birth of photography, the Victorians were flouting the conventions of this new and important medium to put human heads on animal bodies, place people in fanciful landscapes, morph human faces into household objects and generally lay the foundation for the collage art of the cubists, Dadaists and surrealists. They had created the art of photocollage. This book, which has been produced to accompany an exhibition of Victorian photocollage at the Art Institute of Chicago, unites collages from fifteen different albums drawn from collections around the world. Most of the images have been rarely displayed or reproduced, and for some it is their first appearance outside of their albums. Together, they provide a fascinating insight into the educated minds and accomplished hands of their creators, who were almost entirely women of the aristocracy and landed gentry. Their compositions often flout both the conventions of early photography and restrictions of Victorian society in the middle and upper classes. ‘One can imagine groups chuckling over the scenarios into which they, and others in their social circle, had been unceremoniously inserted,’ writes author Siegel in one of three informative essays in the book. To me, some of the collages have a definite Pythonesque feel to them; you almost expect the huge, crushing foot to appear at any moment. And if Ann Geddes thought she was the first to come up with the idea of children tucked into flowers, think again; here we see babies nestled on leaves and toddlers resting peacefully in peonies. Sometimes the photographic imagery is staged on a background of a watercolour scene, often making use of a three-dimensional effect; in other examples the creator has taken a set of playing cards and attached photos of different heads to the kings, queens and jacks. This was also the era in which Charles Darwin announced his scientific discoveries, and we find a family of human-headed apes as well as a watercolour of ducks swimming calmly along, their heads the photos of society ladies. Even if the historical background of the Victorian photocollage was less interesting, this would still be a captivating book. Playing with Pictures: The Art of Victorian Photocollage by Elizabeth Siegel. Published by Yale University Press, USA, 2009. 285mm x 254mm, 200pp, colour illustrations, hard cover. ISBN 978-0-3001-4114-6. RRP $85. www.inbooks.com.au The exhibition Playing with Pictures is at the Art Institute of Chicago until January 3, 2010; The Metropolitan Museum Of Art, New York, from February 2 to May 9; and the Art Gallery of Ontario from June 5 to September 5.
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anyone to
get to the end of her new book on Christmas collectables without feeling the same way. ‘I absolutely adore this time of year,’ she writes. ‘The whole season is magical…and has been for me since childhood.
Everything about the day (December 25) was perfect, uncomplicated and really fun.’
developed because
of one collector’s frustration with the lack of information on his or her chosen subject. That’s exactly what happened to Richard Kameny. His dissatisfaction at not being able to find the records or data on Australian
glass milk bottles evolved into more than twelve years of research that culminated in this book (although the research continues today).
of images can
be so seamlessly performed as to make even the most bizarre combination appear real, if not quite natural. But true to the saying that ‘everything old is new again,’ today’s computer whizzkids are actually working in
a format that was first developed more than one hundred and fifty years ago.