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new new zealand, this & that

The only new NZ bottle I have to show you this time is actually an old one I have not seen
before. The cover shows a Havill’s mead jug found by Ian Butcher on Paraparaumu market. I
thought that I had all of these (other than a few ‘one-off’ specials) in my collection but I have
never seen this one before. Most Havill’s meads came in three colours, blue, brown & green,
so there may be two variations of this jug out there somewhere.

As I write this I have just returned from nearly 3 months in the US (mainly), Canada &
Mexico (briefly). The trip started out in St. Louis for the annual MMBC Mini Bottle Show (a
giant sale for those of you not familiar with it). This year the show had very mixed reviews
with some collectors thinking it a very good show and others thinking it a poor one. Much
depended on what you collected, with this year’s show (unusually) being a poor one for
collectors of ceramics. Unfortunately I fall into the latter category so I did not end up buying a
lot. However, all the shows are great for meeting and catching-up with collectors from around
the world.

On my travels I did not seem to buy a lot more minis, apart from during visits to member
David Spaid and dealer Harry Goetz. Having said that I accumulated almost 150 in the 3
months and bought a whole pile of frogs for my wife’s collection (she joined me for the last 6
weeks). We had to buy four more suitcases to get everything home, all safely I am glad to
say. Some of my more unusual purchases are shown below.

The two white
dogs are from
Dutch company,
Hulstkamp,
although the
pottery is german.

I’m sure all of you
have seen the
Rynbende Poodle
before. I have had

both the black & white in
my collection for at least
30 years. However, as with
most of these in
collections, the heads of
my original two face right.
This one faces left. All I
need now is the left facing
white but the left facing
poodles are extremely rare

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