This weekend just gone, I went to the Kyneton Lost Trades Fair in Kyneton, country Victoria, where I got the chance to see all kinds of ‘lost trades’. Blacksmiths, cobblers, bell-makers, potters, glass-blowers, knife-makers, carvers, carpenters, chandlers, weavers, spinners…the list goes on and on and on.

Anyway, while I was there I ran into some friends and got the chance to film them. This is the result!

Another one of my writing-box restoration projects, I picked this up at a local flea-market and brought it home with me. I cleaned it up and then went about restoring the main hinge between the upper and lower halves of the writing slope.

It’s a beautiful box, but unfortunately, taping it down with black tape and sewing it together is the only way to prevent complete destruction. The manner of their construction makes any other type of repair nigh impossible on these boxes.

Here’s some still shots I took of the same box:

Up above, you can just see the black electrical-tape reinforcement to the hinge. It’s a passable solution to a finicky problem.

Here’s a closeup shot of the engraving at the top of the box:

I haven’t been able to find out anything about who S. Neaverson was, or what he did that caused him to buy a box in 1886 (which I take to be the purchase-date), but he certainly seemed to have fine taste in writing accessories!

I’ve written about this a while ago, but due to changes in my blog, I decided that I should write about it again. The old post was looking like a dog’s breakfast on a good day, and at any rate, didn’t reflect the current condition of the box in question (which I had finished restoring, since writing that post more years ago than I care to admit).

This post will be significantly shorter than my original one, mostly because the vast majority of the information is now contained in this video:

But suffice to say: I bought the box in London back in around 2010. I restored it over the course of a number of years, slowly finding the right bits and pieces for it, and fixing up various condition problems with the box.

I’ve seen a few Toulmin & Gale boxes in my time, none of which were as nice as this one. Or as complete, so I’m very glad to have this one. Toulmin & Gale operated from 1735-1876 (when the firm declared bankruptcy in the London Gazette), and I believe this box dates to the early-or-mid 1860s. So it makes it at least 140-150 years old. To this day, it remains my most prized possession!

Well over a year ago, I wrote this post about an antique lady’s writing box which I bought, and restored.

I’d been meaning to do a video about it for ages, but I don’t think I ever got around to it. I finally had some quietude today, so I cranked one out for the world to see. Here it is!

Feel free to post feedback here on my blog, or on my YouTube channel – whatever is more comfortable. Happy to answer any questions about it…Just so long as it’s not “Is that for sale?“…because the answer is no! Haha!

Here’s a few close-up photos of the box, in case I’m moving the camera too fast for you to see anything!

I wrote a post about this back in April of this year. Now that I have my YouTube channel up and going, I decided to make a video about it, too:

Should you want, you can read the original post here.

I picked up this telescope at the local flea-market about a week ago. It was brown and ugly and dirty and only after extensive cleaning was I able to get it to look something akin to what it might’ve done when it was new, by now, probably well over 100 years ago!

Here’s a simple video I did about it:

I think it’s both a beautiful, but also practical, fun and useful item. So glad to have the chance to add it to my collection. It’s got a great, smooth action and wonderful optics, despite its minor flaws here and there.

Showing off some of the gems in my collection: My Victorian-era brass counter-bells…

Feel free to head over to my YouTube channel by clicking on the video, and leaving a LIKE or a COMMENT there, and be sure to check out my other videos about the other antiques that have found their ways into my hands!