Ringing in Changes

It is quite easy to picture this brass dinner gong sitting proudly on a sideboard within a well-furnished dining room ready to call the guests to dinner. The gong was produced by Koninklijke Metaalwarenfabriek Daalderop (KMD) of Teil in Holland. The company was started in 1880 by J. N. Daalderop, became known as KMD in […]

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Good Will Rewarded

One Sunday shortly before Christmas in 1928, Frederick V. D’Arcy (1901-1996) sat down to write the following inscription on the first blank page of a small leather-bound bible: ‘16th December 1928, Presented to Mr. B. Wallbank, From the Dudley Presbyterian Sunday School, F.V. D’Arcy, Superintendent.’ D’Arcy was born in Walcha, New South Wales, on Anaiwan […]

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An Unusual Token of Esteem

As a retirement gift this silver ink stand made by Barker Brothers of England is perfect. But it is much more than a retirement gift, it is a symbol of the high regard in which the recipient was held and the exercise of commonsense in uncertain and difficult times. The ink stand was presented to […]

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Take Two Emu Eggs

Two emu eggs to make a ‘bachelor tea set’ – one for the teapot, one half for the sugar bowl and the other for the cream jug. Was the cream jug ever used? It’s not likely. The fashion for goblets and cups made from silver mounted emu eggs reached its height in the second half […]

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