Pages

Thursday 19 July 2012

Giveaway.

So this is a no holds barred, shameless attempt to lure more followers to subscribe to my blog. Wouldn't you love to flick through this beautiful coffee table book about some of Tasmania's gorgeous old homes:



My house isn't in this book, yet my friend Janey's is:





.....you can read all about how she chose her curtains. Old houses are something we have in abundance in Hobart. And compared to other capital cities in Australia, they cost less. If you don't believe me, click here and see for yourself.

But wait there's more. A jar of cumquat compote made by me with fruit from my own tree:




You could eat it with vanilla bean ice cream or on a fruit platter. To win the book and the compote all you have to do is become a follower. Please. Once you become a follower you are automatically in the draw. I will choose the lucky winner randomly at the end of the month.

I am a creature of habit. Thursday is Bikram Yoga, a trip to Gowans Auctions, lunch, school pick up, ensuing chaos. If you are unfamiliar with my routine, read all about a Thursday in January here. Today, I was reflecting on life in Hobart. The capital of this funny little state of Tasmania which has a population of just over 500,000. Curious things do happen here, in Hobart, every now and again. Out at Gowans rifling through the usual hotchpotch of stuff, I saw the sign for the Hamilton Inn Couch that they have on proud display in the corridor leading to where you register to bid:


Before I regale you with this fantastic tale of auction going riches beyond anyone's wildest imaginings, I must just give you an honest visual of what it's like at Gowans:




It may be an Aladdin's Cave of treasure but you really do have to sift through the crap.....and don't be deceived, it could NEVER be described as glamorous.

In 2005, an unrestored colonial red cedar couch, which had been stored in a shed, came up for auction......because the owner wanted to raise enough money for a fence:



Initially, this dishevelled piece of furniture was knocked down for $48,000. Then someone complained so bidding started again. It eventually finished at $310,800. One of the highest prices ever paid for a piece of Australian furniture. It dates from 1820 and the value was in the fact that over it's 190 year history, it had never been tinkered with. Apparently the owners kept bits that had broken off in a box with a view to restoring it in the future. Luckily they didn't. The Hamilton Inn Couch is Hobart's version of a Vermeer in the attic.

Like most of the fabulous art to come to Hobart in recent times, the Hamilton Inn Couch was paid for predominantly with gambling money. The Federal Group (which own Tasmania's two casinos as well as the license to operate all poker machines in Tasmania) purchased it and donated it to the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. The other fabulous art in Hobart funded by gambling is David Walsh's Museum of Old and New Art, MONA. Funded in it's entirety by the spoils of gambling, which used to be tax free. Now the ATO are after David Walsh to pay a tax debt of $37 million. Was I suggesting that Hobart is dull?

R







16 comments:

  1. Such a lovely book - I've been looking at it at the bookshop and sighing at the beautiful homes.

    Adelaide is pretty similar to Hobart in some respects - we have Small and Whitfield auctions. It's full of all kinds of odds and ends. I think places that used to have a wealthy establishment 100 years ago, but now have a somewhat more impoverished population today equals good quality, cheap antiques. When we lived in Melbourne we used to buy our furniture in Adelaide. It was literally half the price and often better quality items.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'd love to go auctioning in Adelaide.....last time I was there I only had enough time to go to a party and then to a yum cha lunch the next day. Was chatting to the chap up the road who owns the fish shop and he agrees that now is an especially good time to be haunting auctions as it's a way for people to dispose of things easily for extra cash and there are good bargains to be had. I wonder what I'll find next week.....Rx

      Delete
  2. I have just "followed" your blog after seeing you plight on Facebook. I have been browsing here tonight and applaud anyone who has four children (as I do) and finds the time to blog (let alone make preserved cumquats). So here is cheers to you. Angela

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Angela, yes time is of the essence when you have four children.....I have just whipped up a tiramisu while my baby is asleep and the rest of my children are reading/playing after a fatiguing morning of sport/dancing/birthday parties (exhausting for me too)! Rx

      Delete
  3. I have been reading your blog for a while now. I really like seeing Hobart from another local's point of view. And I really want to go out to Gowan's one day soon too! x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You live in Hobart and haven't been to Gowans! You must go this week....you can view Friday's auction all day Thursday. You are in for a treat.....I can still remember my first time! Have a lovely weekend. Rx

      Delete
  4. When I was 14 my Mother and I did a tour of Tasmania's National Trust houses. I adored it and it has instilled in me a life long love of of beautiful old houses with character. x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That would have been a very special trip. There are some amazing National Trust houses down here and they really are such a window into how life used to be lived.....quite different to now! Rx

      Delete
  5. Ah Romy, you make me smile. That fabulous book has been on my wishlist for a while now. And that cumquat compete looks delish. You're spot on about Gowan's. Glamorous it isn't. But on my only visit there I scored two shoe-shine boxes - see http://www.lifeonplanetbaby.com/2011/10/operation-shoeshine-my-first-diy.html for my makeover of one of them! J x

    ReplyDelete
  6. My husband couldn't stop laughing when he saw that photo of the inside of the Gowans shed.....he refuses to come with me on my surveillance expeditions! I had a look at your shoe shine box.....what an utterly fabulous transformation, your sister must have been delighted. Rx

    ReplyDelete
  7. What a gorgeous book Romy. I'm over here thanks to finding your blog via Jane's 'Life on planet baby' :-)

    ReplyDelete
  8. I too found my way over here thanks to Jane and Life of Planet Baby.
    I love old houses.
    I am originally from New England...just outside of Boston...and there certainly is no shortage of old houses over there!
    Now I live in Queensland in an old Queenslander and while I wish almost daily for a new kitchen I love our old house and all of its quirks!

    ReplyDelete
  9. ¡Hola! I'm a new follower from Barcelona, Spain. I've discovered your blog after visiting Life of Planet Baby. I visited Australia once, but I didn't get to see Tasmania. I guess I'll have to go back! The giveaway sounds really exotic, I've never heard of that type of compote. Best regards from the other side of the world,
    Marta
    http://abilingualbb.blogspot.com.es/

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hi Romy,
    I too have found you through Life on Planet Baby. I am a newbie blogger also from Hobart, congratulations on your blog - I am off to have a look around it!
    Cheers Melita

    ReplyDelete
  11. Just got the giggles reading through your blog - I was wondering if you knew my friend Janey... and then her house popped up!!!! So I guess you do...! Have just been with her in the UK.

    ReplyDelete
  12. How funny.....this is Tasmania after all. Janey has been a fab friend ever since we used to be naughty at school together which was a very long time ago now! She's just started filling me in on fragments of the trip and now I've seen your photos! Rx

    ReplyDelete

I LOVE hearing your thoughts! Rx