Saturday, May 14, 2011

Collector Chris' house of wonder - Divers collections (Swindon Advertiser)

Collector Chris' house of wonder (From Swindon Advertiser):
Chris with his collection of Guinness memorabilia

LOOKING at Chris Lowe’s perfectly ordinary home, you’d never guess there was a Dalek inside.
Or a deckchair from the Titanic, for that matter. Or a saddle and a couple of shoes once worn by Seabiscuit, the thoroughbred Depression-era racehorse who is as iconic in America as Red Rum is here. Or a fabulously rare 1946 Wurlitzer jukebox packed with a stack of 78rpm records from the dawn of rock ‘n’ roll, plus some highly collectable Beatles 78s of a type pressed only in India way back when.
Or perhaps the most impressive collection of Guinness memorabilia in private hands – although he plans to auction these items in Devizes next month. Or hundreds of other items, ranging from novelty teapots to 1950s Disney toys still in their original packaging. 
Chris, 61, comes across as a modern day equivalent of those Georgian collectors of whatever took their fancy; the people whose cabinets of curiosities formed the nuclei of some of our greatest museums.


"“I bought the first one from a tea shop in Stratford-upon-Avon. It’s a man in a dentist’s chair, a design by Roy Simpson. It just appealed to me, it’s so very clever.

“I had no inkling it was the start of a collection.

“I like things that are visually good fun, things that make people laugh and say, ‘wow. That’s great.’”"


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