MANY WILL HAVE ENJOYED CONSULTING ESA MEMBER VIVIENNE O’NEILL’S Yesterday’s Paper – Collecting Ephemera in Australia.
Vivienne O’Neill and David Tuckwell have just (Easter 2014) published Package Tour: a guide to South Australian tins, packaging and giveaways. (To order a copy please find the details at the end of this post.) This comprehensive and beautifully illustrated book has a print run of 300 and is selling fast. Vivienne advises that there may be a second print run and there will almost certainly be an addendum as publication has unearthed more material.
So what will the ephemerist find of interest here?
I had better start with the following confession – I borrowed someone’s copy and having looked at the book, and have ordered my own.
The book is a record of packaging (including bottles, jars and tins), advertising and giveaways created by or for South Australian business. The record ranges from tins and other packaging to advertising giveaways handed out by even small local stops.
The book is also a price guide from the rare to the relatively easy to find.
This book’s foundation is David Tuckwell Going Stronger – a guide to collecting South Australian tins, packaging and giveaways (1999).
The mechanics of the book
The material is organised by business name. There is a history of the business and then colour reproductions of packaging, advertising and giveaways.
Apart from the main company sequence there is a chapter called ‘Work in Progress’ (items for which the authors are yet to find information). There is also a sequence called ‘Off the Shelf” which groups like items in the way they might have been seen for sale.
There are formal appendices of: trademarks registered in South Australia; a wish list of items known about but not currently found; companies with no specific trademark registered; and exhibition venues.
There is an index which allows you to search by say product, for example ice cream but it does not appear to be comprehensive for a search by format- for example, you will see that we have reproduced a blotter for a tea company but blotter does not seem to have an index entry. This is a minor shortcoming that I notice only as a former librarian.
Selected illustrations from Package Tour
The illustrations have been sourced from private collections across the state. The State Library of South Australia has been extremely helpful in allowing the authors to use some outstanding early photos of a number of business premises.
Contact details:
Vivienne: gilbertside at bigpond.com or (08) 8847 4147. David: tuckwelldavid at bigpond.com or at Chateau Dorrien, Thursday to Monday, (08) 8562 2850.
How to buy the book – price: $55 plus postage and packing: $9
The book is not available in book shops.
Copies over the counter only from David at Chateau Dorrien (corner of Barossa Valley Way and Seppeltsfield Road, 7 days) or Vivienne at Gilbertside Antiques, 21 Burra Road, Saddleworth (Friday to Sunday 12.00 to 4.30). Credit card sales over the counter only.
All other sales by electronic mail or snail mail order. Payment is by direct deposit, cheque, money order.
Direct deposit:
ANZ: Account Name: IJ & VJ Bullock (A Package Tour)
BSB: 015708 Account Number: 193042185.
IMPORTANT: please include your name in the transfer description so that your payment can be identified. Then email gilbertside at bigpond.com to indicate payment and delivery address, and a contact telephone number.
Post:
Please make cheques/money orders payable to IJ & VJ Bullock and return to Gilbertside Antiques, PO Box 53, Saddleworth SA 5413.
Then provide the following details in BLOCK LETTERS BY POST:
Name, address, telephone number and email;
Number of copies required;
Sum enclosed by way of payment (price: $55 plus postage and packing: $9).
About the authors
David is the (prolific) author of:
A guide to collecting South Australian chemist bottles, Adelaide: D. Tuckwell, 1992 (and revised edition 1993);
An introduction to collecting old world ephemera, packaging and general Australiana co-author Christine Tuckwell, Craigmore SA: D & B Tuckwell, 1998;
Brewers and Aerated Waters Manufacturers in SA 1836-1936 co-author Hallett Shueard, [Brompton, S. Aust.]: Shueard and Tuckwell, [1993];
Swan Reach, Small Town- Big History; a social reflection 1846-1996 co-author Christine Tuckwell, Swan Reach SA: Mid Murray Lands Local History Group, 1996;
The complete guide to collecting South Australian Codd bottles co-author Brian Tuckwell, Craigmore, SA: D & B Tuckwell, 1991.
Vivienne is the author of Yesterday’s Paper: Collecting Ephemera in Australia.
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