Collectors

Behind the Scenes

OLIVER ROBB
What is your role on Collectors and what does this entail?
Collectors magazine began five years ago as a companion to the TV show and I have been the editor from the beginning.

Tractors

Bill Shanley drives tractors for about six months of the year and has done so for decades. It�s part of his job working as a farmer. Driving tractors gets into your blood, so the rest of the time he�s free to play with them. Over the years he has gathered together a mighty collection of tractors, a neat one hundred, he thinks. They all go except for four, which are works in progress.

Living Treasure

Adrian is a serious collector of contemporary Australian ceramics and didn�t want to miss the opportunity of meeting one of Australia�s great potters, Les Blakebrough, before he leaves Hobart to live in Sydney.

Trumpets

A wonderful old band master took John under his wing when he was a small boy and gave him a great appreciation for music. Many decades on, John not only plays music for a living, but also collects instruments from one of the most versatile families, the trumpet.

Auction Round Up

This week on Collectors we look back at the year�s auction items and tally the scores to find the winner of the auction challenge this year.

Show and Tell - Lava Lamp

Heidi from west of Melbourne, bought two lava lamps a few months ago, and only paid a couple of dollars each for them. She wonders if she got a bargain and what age the lamps are.

Mystery Object

This week�s mystery object had people�s imaginations going beserk! Their guesses included a flower press, a stretcher and roller, a clamp, a holder for paper, music or embroidery, a device for straightening clothes, and a vice.

Adrian explains that it�s a frame made from wood and steel. It has two adjusting butterfly nuts and a hinged piece of timber and protective foam pieces stuck on the inside. A screw winds the bar out. Adrian thinks that the device is a trouser press, maybe part of a gentleman�s travelling wardrobe. Claudia and Gordon are in agreement.

How close were they?

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Episode 21

Tonight on COLLECTORS we bring on the brass and blow the trumpet for the last program of the year. We sing and dance with musical theatre queen Rhonda Burchmore, who comes out of the closet as a Barbie collector, start the ignition on some practical but pretty tractors and revere the work of a National Living Treasure.