New Truck

New arrival at Old Gippstown - a Ford Truck, partially restored, from the estate of the late John Leckey.

What year? Good question. Your blogger was so excited about it that she failed to bring the paperwork home with her, but she still thought you might enjoy the picture.

If has arrived at Old Gippstown through the agency of Michael and Ruth Fozard.

We have also received a quantity of material from the estate that will require further sorting, but in the meantime, there was this name plate from an early funeral director also included.

We are not sure at this point where he was located - but we will find out!

LATER NOTE: It appears the firm of Devine and Leckey amalgamated with E.T. Bond and Son in 1975 to form Gippsland Funerals, and this firm was in Morwell. But little has yet been found on E.T. Bond.

Getting ready to upload to CAN

Over Christmas there has been quite a lot of time going into the database to check entries ready for an upload to Collections Australia Network (CAN) at the end of January / start of February.

So we have been over in Bushy Park checking some catalogue entries, which gave us a chance for a closer look at this cushion.

It is a beautiful and intricate example of drawn-thread work - a style of embroidery not much practised today. It was popular as it only required white cotton fabric and one type of white cotton thread (sometimes two).

After our catalogue is loaded (some details from about 1,500 items), you will be able to search it online through CAN.

Which is rather exciting for us.

Collection Survey Funded.

We are delighted to announce that Old Gippstown has received funding of $5,000 from Heritage Victoria to fund a Significance Survey for the collection.

This is a vital step forward in planning for the best possible management of the valuable items that we hold on behalf of the community.

This support from Heritage Victoria is most appreciated.

China Marks

It could be possible to get quite addicted to these things. China Marks, that is. This one is on a rather glorious bathroom set in the bedroom at Cobb and Co. This is the jug:

What with trying to work out the family trees of J&G Meakin, along with Alfred Meakin, and trying to sort out a very mixed lot (13 pieces) of "Asiatic Peasant", and trying to work out what pottery "Pomona" is - we could be there all year.

So, in the meantime, you might like to look at some "Asiatic Pheasant", one of the most popular patterns from the Victorian era. Ours is all consolidated in Bushy Park.

I wonder if .......

Eddie has been cataloguing in the Shearing Shed,and found this incubator:

It was used for raising chickens, and has a structure within for heating.

One assumes the eggs were nestled in straw, as well.

So the plate isn't as silly as it seems:

But we hope the straw and kero/flame were well insulated from each other!