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Sunday, September 24, 2006

Belleek Newslettre (# 10.4)

** SALE !! SALE !! **

WELL, IT’S HERE !! YES, what I promised ALL of you
fine Belleekers several months back !! The SALE of
Berdell Dickinson’s Belleek Estate !! You may access
ALL information, including sales and shipping, rules
and regulations, as well as ALL lots with associated
pictures of every item at the following Site Address :

Berdell Dickinson Auction !!

REMEMBER, this is a SALE, NOT an Auction !! It will
be STRICKLY ‘first come, first serve’ !! There are
approximately 240 Lots, offering something for
everyone !!

Many items have been SOLD, BUT if you see a Lot that’s
‘PENDING’ you may still indicate a desire to purchase
it and you will be put on a first-come offer list for
that Lot(s) !!

PLEASE, FORWARD (FWD) this E-mail to ALL your Belleeker
friends and associates so EVERYONE has an opportunity
to participate in this marvelous sale !! THANKS !!

** 2007 CONVENTION !!

By now, ALL of you should have received your Spring
BCIS Newsletter !! Included, you should have
discouvered an information bulletin and registration
form for our upcoming Convention at the Belleek
Pottery in Ireland, April 18 - 21, 2007 !!

I won't repeat ALL the splendid information here,
BUT I will add a Link where you will discouver
identical information as well as a Link JUST
obtained, regarding a POST-Convention Tour of
Ireland !!

For additional Registration Forms or Convention
Itinerary Information please visit the following
Site :

http://delyicious.magix.net/public/2007_conv_itenery.html

HAPPY BELLEEKING and see you all at the Pottery
next Spring !!

** CHICAGO SUMMER ANTIQUE FAIR !!

Well, I’ll relate the positives AND negatives to all of
you regarding this years Summer Antique Fair in Chicago !!

First off, there was NO traffic going TO the airport,
so I arrived like OVER 2 hours early !! A POSITIVE !!
Unfortunately, there were thunder storms in Chicago
and their airport(s) were ALL CLOSED so, our 10:40AM
flight left right on time at 3PM !! (BIT of a negative !!)

By this time, so many people had ‘just given up’, the
airlines didn’t have a clue as to who WAS on their plane !!
SO, JUST prior to takeoff, they stopped the plane and
did a ‘roll-call’ by hand-raise ?? 15 minutes later we
FINALLY departed !!

Upon arrival in Chicago, there were SO many poor
folks that had missed their connections, the hotel
buses were packed as people begin to fight for rooms !!
In any case, the show didn’t begin till noon the
following day so I had a good nights rest after a
splendid dinner !!

Before the show opening, I met up with our hosts from
the Grand Rapids, MI, 2005 Convention, and following
an early afternoon tour of the fair, we adjourned for
a wonderful lunch !!

Unfortunately, this year’s fair had no where near the
participants of past years so it was EASY to traverse
the aisles in a decent amount of time !!

Although the show was ‘small’ in size, the quality of
the merchandise offered for purchase was very excellent !!
One item we all ‘joked’ about was a beautiful art
nouveaux nude female figurine, cast in bronze, with
a bird on her wrist !! She stood approximately 8 feet
tall and was priced appropriately at a mere $95,000 !!

OH WELL, I couldn’t have carried her home even though
she would have looked splendid in my living room !!

My trip home was via Amtrak, and REGARDLESS of what’s
said, THEY DID LEAVE ON TIME and arrived back in
Seattle about a half hour AHEAD of schedule !!

** FOR ALL YOUR DISPLAY NEEDS !!

If you recall, several Newslettres back, as I
returned from the Summer Antique Fair in Atlantic
City, I presented my latest acquisition of a Steiff
Penguin !! Well, in the interim, I’ve been attempting
to discouver a source for dust free environments for
objects d’art !! The following Site, has MULTITUDES
of such objects, from containers for your dolls and
baseballs to ‘risers’ for your Belleek Cups, etc. !!
Give them a look-see !!

http://www.plasticsmart.com/index.html

They also handle a full complement of business items
including card and folder holders as well as small
display cases and earring, watch and necklace mounts,
etc. !!

** NOW WE KNOW !!

"A fruit is a vegetable with looks and money. Plus,
if you let fruit rot, it turns into wine, something
Brussels sprouts never do."
    -- P.J. O'Rourke

** APPLES AND INKWELLS !!

Speaking of fruits, as it’s getting on into our Fall
Season, I’m tempted to compose a bit about one of
Washington State’s fabulous fruits, the apple !! For
me, apples bring back fond memories of candied apples
at the State Fairs, MOM’s apple pies and or course,
bobbing for apples on Halloween !!

Keeping this in mind, I have absolutely NO idea what
prompted Belleek to produce their infamous Apple Leaf
Inkwell ?? I’m pretty sure that the origin of the
Apple Leaf Inkwell has NOTHING to do with William
Tell and his son ??

Then, I thought of school children bringing apples to
their teachers !! I then reminisced on my past and
realized that I probably should have been delivering
bushels of apples every day !!

My attention then directed my thoughts to the old
wives saying ‘An apple a day keeps the doctor away’ !!
A bit more research, lead me to the complete, and
might I say here, proper poem !!

An apple a day
Sends the doctor away

Apple in the morning
Doctor's warning

Roast apple at night
Starves the doctor outright

Eat an apple going to bed
Knock the doctor on the head

Three each day, seven days a week
Ruddy apple, ruddy cheek
    -- Unknown c(untraceable)

I thought more on this subject and scientifically
note that apples originate from the flowers, or
those beautiful little apple blossoms, on the apple
trees !! For the apples to begin to develop, it’s
required that they be cross-pollinated by bees !!
SO, did Belleek see some connection between their
bees on the Grass Honey Pot and their apples ??
Of course, we’ll never know !!

For whatever reason, Belleek produced, early on in
its existence, what they dubbed, appropriately, the
Apple Leaf Inkwell !! The ink is maintained in the
inner chamber, which, when not in use is covered over
by the apple which, is hollow !!

This proved to be a very ingenious design !! So much
so, in fact, that the Pottery made a slight modification
to the actual inkwell, such that it would support a
candle, added a ‘twig’ handle, and created the Apple
Leaf Nite Stick !! We should note here, that around the
turn of the 20th Century, Nite Sticks were VERY popular
if not a necessity for every day life !!

 
            The Apple Leaf Inkwell is a 1st Period piece !!
            It is also impressed ‘Belleek Co. Fermanagh’ !!

As long as I’m discussing inkwells, I thought it
appropriate to introduce Belleek’s other entry
into this realm, the Mermaid Inkwell !!

This item is much easier to speculate as to the
production choice by the Pottery !! Obviously, it
kept pace with their production of ocean and sea
oriented pieces !!

Unfortunately, this is a VERY difficult item to
photograph as it has an extremely low profile and
with the addition of the high sheen glaze, has a
tendency to reflect an inordinate amount of light
with any attempt to capture a photographic image !!

What’s extremely interesting regarding this item,
is its finial !! If you examine any of your Belleek
reference books, you will note, in the picture of
the Mermaid Inkwell in the 1904 Catalogue, that the
finial ‘appears’ to be (five) branches of coral ??
The finial on my example in DEFINITELY a FROG !!
I’ve examined this finial from EVERY angle, and
there’s NO way this is branches of coral !!

Note also, the coral branches supplied for your quill
pen to rest on !! Remember, that when inkwells were
prevalent, quill pens were the norm !! They were the
predecessor to the first fountain pens which, were
introduced around 1900 !! They were then superseded
by today’s ballpoint pen, which, we are all familiar
with and were not invented until the 1940’s !! One
should note here that today’s calligraphers STILL use
quill fashioned pens to produce their beautiful
lettering !! BUT, this is entirely another subject
and story for another day !!

 
          The Mermaid Inkwell is a 2nd Period piece !!
                    Note the Frog Finial !!

** SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION !!

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