Antiques Collectables Brisbane

21/10/2026

Small steps

21/10/2026

Another small project coming together , making a base mount for ships telegraph .

16/10/2026

Brass Polishing done on this Russian Gyro Compass Repeater .

06/10/2026

R.G. Lawrie (often read as R.C. Lawrie due to cursive or worn vintage stamping) was a highly prominent Scottish manufacturer based in Glasgow that specialized in lawn bowls, bagpipes, and kilts. Founded in 1881 .

He revolutionized lawn bowls by building advanced machinery to shape bowls rapidly and inventing a mechanical testing machine to ensure a perfectly accurate bias.
• "Guaranteed Batch No. 250": This stamp was a mark of quality assurance by the company. Lawrie production often grouped bowls into specific, tested "batches" or "rinks" to ensure that all 2 or 4 bowls in a matched set had identical weights, shapes, and bias trajectories.
Made of Lignum Vitae (a dense, heavy exotic wood) they likely date from the late 1800s to the 1940s.

These items are highly regarded as antique collectables. While beautifully crafted, vintage bowls like these usually do not carry modern World Bowls or International Bowling Board (IBB) date stamps required for competitive club play today. They are popular as historical display pieces, for casual backyard games, or for collectors of Scottish sporting memorabilia or lawn bowls memorabilia.

This set comes in a canvas and leather carry bag with owners initials .

28/09/2026

The Helmet display is finally complete. All out of recycled Silky Oak Timber .

28/09/2026

28/09/2026

Finished project !

21/09/2026

Repurposing this old tripod , will mount the old Big Eye Binoculars on once they are cleaned up down the track .

18/09/2026

Yongala Painting - The Last Sighting . Another for the collection .
The SS Yongala was a 109-metre luxury passenger and freight steamship that tragically sank during a tropical cyclone off the coast of Queensland on 23 March 1911, resulting in the loss of all 122 passengers and crew. Today, it is widely considered one of the top 10 dive sites in the world and arguably the ultimate historic wreck dive.The Tragic HistoryBuilt in England in 1903 for the Adelaide Steamship Company, the ship was named after the small town of Yongala, South Australia, an Aboriginal word meaning "broad water".On its 99th voyage, steaming from Melbourne to Cairns, the Yongala encountered a fierce cyclone after departing Mackay. Because the ship lacked wireless telegraphy equipment, the crew had no warning of the impending storm. The vessel vanished without a trace, creating one of Australia's most enduring maritime mysteries until its largely intact hull was finally discovered and confirmed by local divers in 1958

Until the introduction of Satellite Navigation this was an extremely difficult wreck to locate . Only a small handful of Masters could confidently locate her and even then the search could take 40 minutes or 6 hours, distant radar ranges off a low profile sand coast line , strong currents, how you interpreted the radar returns , lack of sleep and the pressure to produce all contributed to a sigh of relief once you did get that hit on the depth sounder showing you had just passed over her .
Photo from journal in 1980s showing Radar Ranges and search headings used to locate the wreck from closest points of land .

14/09/2026

About a 12 week process to get this little project completed. Happy with outcome , lots of lessons learned . The date and words don’t pop as would have liked but the color was only ever going to be black or blood red at the end of the day . Put a couple of AI version photos in to give it some character as well .