Our Thirty Ninth gathering was held in the rural surroundings of Mulberry House Conference centre situated in Essex some 19 miles from London. Over thirty members gathered to enjoy an action packed weekend of events.
On Saturday members gathered in the Cedar Room at 5.00pm to hear an informative and interesting talk given by Stephen Weston, Chairman of the Goss Collectors Club. A very comprehensive and diverse display of Goss wares was exhibited. Later, a three course dinner was enjoyed and afterwards , members relaxed in the lounge area for further discussions about Goss and Belleek in general with Stephen and his wife, Ann.
Sunday morning started early with breakfast for weekend delegates while UK group members travelled from the far reaches of the country for the Sunday programme starting at 10.30...after refreshments and welcomes, Jan Golaszewski and Joanna Urbanek presented an interesting talk entitled 'Going Spanish' relating to their interest in Doulton wares. They brought an interesting selection of wares for discussion as well.
Tony Fox then presented the 'Patt Fox Memorial Award' which is an annual award devoted to the memory of Patt Fox and presented annually to a lady member of the group who has during that year shown the attributes attached to this award. The award this year was presented to Karen Kincheloe, who was very surprised and honoured to receive the award. During her acceptance speech, Karen explained why the award was so precious as Patt and Karen had instantly struck up a good friendship and whenever Karen travelled to England for meetings she stayed with Patt and Tony.
After lunch, members gathered for a talk and discussion by Neville Maguire on Belleek Earthenware entitled 'A for Asylum, B for Belleek, C for Clarity'...He began by saying there were two strands of approach. One was the 'Romantic Fantasy' which led to fiction. Most studies on Belleek fell into this category. The other approach was rational realism and this led to fact. He said he wanted to revisit his convention talk from 1997 and examine it with this in mind. He then gave the speech which was accompanied with the slides shown at the Convention. Neville gave an up date as his perception had changed since then in the light of further knowledge |
