A Georgian silver teapot made in 1784, ancient Egyptian funerary figurines and Ancient Greek red-figure pottery, Royal Doulton animals, vintage jewellery, an enormous orange ceramic cat, and the stray taxidermized European mountain goat will be among the treasures at Murrumbidgee Canberra Rotary’s ACT Seasonal Antique and Collectable Fair this weekend.
Fittingly for a fundraiser held at the end of Homelessness Week, part of the money raised will support the Early Morning Centre, which provides meals, assistance, and community for homeless Canberrans – a charity Rotary has supported for several years.
“The Early Morning Centre does a lot of good work with people who are doing it pretty tough,” organiser Neal Fogarty said. “They provide meals and other support.”
Through Australian Rotary Health, the fair will also help fund a PhD scholarship at Melbourne’s Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research into childhood cancer and leukaemia.
Seventeen dealers from NSW, Victoria and Tasmania will sell a “blend of antiques, old world nostalgia, books, jewellery, everyday older items, and collectables certain to catch the eye of the discerning”.
Items for sale include Australian Bicentenary commemorative ceramics; Japanese enamelled vases; smoking pipes and animal-jaw mirrors; early Australian, Georgian, William IV and Victorian furniture; jewellery, sterling silver and glassware; Art Nouveau metalware; Schneider and Art Deco glass; quilts, linen, ceramics and sewing tools; and retro and twentieth-century design.
Prices range from $20 or $30 for smaller collectables to tens of thousands of dollars for fine jewellery and furniture.
“There’s a real range of items,” Mr Fogarty said.
Does Canberra have a market for a taxidermized mountain goat? Mr Fogarty laughed: “We’ll have to wait and see, won’t we?”
The antique and collectable fair – held twice yearly – is one of several community fundraising activities Rotary runs in Canberra. Others include painting gnomes at Floriade; the Five Peaks Challenge bike ride; and an annual cherry drive.
Mr Fogarty said Rotary offered people a way to contribute locally while also taking part in national and international projects.
“You can be just as local as you want to be, or you can expand and do a lot of other things as well,” he said.
At the local level, the club supports youth scholarships, personal development programs, students attending the National Youth Science Forum, all-ability sailing courses, and women’s shelters.
Mr Fogarty has also taken part in Rotary projects overseas, including helping at an Indian eye camp where 350 cataract operations were carried out in one weekend, and building a vocational centre in Papua New Guinea.
Members come from business, academia, engineering, and science. Mr Fogarty himself was a principal research scientist with the NSW Department of Primary Industries, working on sheep breeding.
He has been involved with Rotary for nearly 40 years, and enjoys its mixture of camaraderie and humanitarian service.
“It’s an opportunity to get involved, have a great time, meet some new people, be involved in the community, and put something back into the community.”
Murrumbidgee Canberra Rotary’s ACT Seasonal Antique and Collectable Fair will be held at the Quokka Pavilion, EPIC, from 9am to 4pm on Saturday 8 and Sunday 9 August. Entry is $12 for adults, $10 concession, and free for children under 14. List of exhibitors at the fair: https://www.mc-rotary.org/antique-fair-exhibitors
