Milk Tokens

Sometimes the oddest of things turn up in the collection, and send us off on a hunt.

These two aluminum milk tokens are from Cessnock, in the Hunter Valley of New South Wales. Which is another coal mining area.

The larger one is for one quart. It is 4cm from base to apex.

The question is, were these:

a) Left on a handy nail as a message to tell the milkie how much milk to leave. He left them there.

b) Prepaid, and collected by the milkie, so no-one stole your milk money.

c) Some form of pre-paid welfare, given out during strikes

If anyone knows, we would love to find out.

And if we do find out - we will let you know!

Cabinetta Bed

There is an article in the current ABC Collector's Magazine on Campaign Furniture, which had us looking again at the one piece that we hold. Campaign furniture was designed for ease of packing up and carrying from war front to war front - usually by officers.

It folds out to form a canvas bed. During the day it could be folded up and used as a seat.

This item is in Bushy Park, and should probably be called more "campaign style", as it doesn't seem to have carrying handles, and the legs do not come off. However on various internet sites similar beds are described as being from the Boer War and from World War I.

It came from Buckley and Nunn, in Melbourne, and was probably more a piece designed to stay in the one place, a house, but fold out easily when there were extra visitors. Sort of like folding beds today.

The maker's plaque, above, is interesting. Although not yet identified (or dated), it appears to be an earlier version of the transfer one, below, for sale currently on the internet:

More on the Solicitor's Office

We now know a lot more about the Solicitor's Office. And this is how it looked in 1969, when someone, as a joke, put a sign on it suggesting the National Trust had recorded the building.

You can read the newspaper article HERE.

The sign on the building is very much in need of a sponsor to be repainted. It is a memorial to two of the Valley's early solicitors - all donations of over $2 are tax deductible

Solicitor's Office

The cataloguing team, assisted by Moe Historical Society, has been researching the Solicitor's Office.

The building has been in Moe since at least as early as 1922, and was then (and for a number of years after), used by solicitor Hubert McCormack Kelly.

The building was originally in Lloyd St, between the post office (which was there then) and the hotel.

Kelly died in 1946, and in the 1940s the building was also in use in conjunction with a garage.

Some time later it was taken over by Bill Webb, who may have been the one to move it to Langford Street, possibly in the 1950s.

Elizabeth Whitburn worked for Bill Webb - her chair was a bag of legal documents.

We don't know when Bill Webb finished with the building, but it was moved to Old Gippstown in the 1970s - one of the few buildings around that can claim such as long history as a home of the legal profession.

If anyone knows anything further about Kelly, Webb or Whitburn, or has photographs of them, we would dearly like to hear from them.

Shaving Mugs

We have been cataloguing some Shaving Mugs. Well, that is Jean, our newest cataloguer has been learning the process on them.

That is when we discovered we have two identical mugs, but with totally different decorations. The one above is hand-painted.

The one below has an applied transfer.

Otherwise - they are identical. We wonder which came first. Did they run out of transfers, and sit there and paint them - blue leaves and all. Or were they painting away, and someone came in with these new-fangled transfers???

Whichever way it was - they certainly give the impression of being early items, and have no brands or maker's marks on them.

Thanks to Glen for the photography.