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Record Lucerne!	'Geometric Buttons'	Christie's Melbourne
Foley Watt Craftsmen	Delicious 'Sunray' Cake	Mark Lovell and  his FAB jacket!

The club's first Melbourne Seminar ran all day on Saturday December 4th, and was at Christie's headquarters, a sumptuous setting in the city centre.

Local members were joined by collectors flying in from Sydney, Adelaide and Canberra. 

Highlight of the day was the revelation of a major new CC pattern, a 1929/1930 Fantasque one found by an OZ club member whilst in NZ! Members were given the chance to choose a suitable name. A young, local collector, Luke, thought of  the winning suggestion, 'Geometric Buttons' which fits perfectly as the pattern resembled Geometric Flowers and Geometric Garden, and dates from the same period.

Guest speakers included Greg Slater who gave a detailed report on his research on Wilkinson's pattern numbers, and local collector Mark Lovell gave an amusing talk about why we collect and our collector foibles, with many great slides of rare pieces. Mark wore a jacket he had hand-painted in Pastel Trees and House! Leonard Griffin gave his Centenary Art of Bizarre lecture plus a full report on the Centenary Year celebrations and exhibitions. 

Throughout the event the amazing Lucerne Blue Conical teaset recently sold by Christie's for a record price sat in the cabinet, and was joined by rarities such as a May Avenue Daffodil teapot, and an Eton coffeepot in Lightning! 

Local glass craftsmen Foley Watt displayed some stunning leaded glass lamps created with stained glass which they had originated themselves. 

A delicious lunch and a large selection of cakes throughout the event meant that everyone was satiated  well before  the Bizarre Bazaar started and collector managed to buy pieces of Inspiration, Crocus and other patterns which were offered by local dealers.

Everyone was so full that they could not manage a slice of the hand-painted  birthday cake. It was in Sunray and had been decorated by Kevin Foley of Foley Watt.

The CCCC must thank Christie's for their wonderful facility, Kevin and Dave of Foley Watt for arranging the event, catering and looking after local collectors, 14 of whom came along to a pre-event dinner on the Friday. The Club would like to thank Sue and George Walters for all their assistance in staging the event.

Len is back in Sydney for the Carters event at the Hilton National Hotel on March 31st to April 2nd and we may have an informal dinner for local members around that time so everyone can keep in touch.

LG