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CHAMPAIGN - URBANA (ILL) COURIER |
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| Local Collectors Busy They Prize Silver, Glass, Coins, Dolls, Banks. By Bernice Cross Every community has its collectors. Champaign-Urbana has several of the outstanding ones in the country. Perhaps the "dean" of them is Prof. Harold G. Trimble, 706 South Coler avenue. Not only does he collect rare items — he puts them to everyday use for sheer enjoyment. Reputed to have the largest collection in the United States of the work which the silversmith Hester Bateman produced during her practice from 1774 to 1791 in London, he declares, "I can tell her silver whenever I see it because of its unique simplicity of design." Starting with a spigoted coffee urn, he assembled the entire collection about the piece. There are graceful sauce boats, a soup tureen worth as much as a bungalow, marrow scoops and tiny pap ladles 18th century mothers used to feed their infants. Hester Bateman, he explains, was the originator of labels for liquor bottles, and he has more than 40 of the delicate silver pendants, The silver is displayed in Chippendale cabinets or on Hepplewhite furniture, the rubbed mahogany patina complementing its gleam. Such furniture fills Professor Trimble's apartment and is set on rugs which belong to one of the finest collections of Bokharas. Warren F. Goodell, 1113 West California avenue, who during the work week is economic analyst for the state division of waterways, in off hours has acquired one of the most complete collections of thumb print glass in the country. The pressed glassware of America's early 1830's fills rows of book shelves in his home. Included are a wide variety of goblets, tumblers, compotes, cruets, pitchers, plates and every other item of tableware.| Capt. Oscar H. Dodson, 201 West Pennsylvania avenue, whose career is the Navy, also is a coin collector of note. A member of the Board of the American Numismatic association, he owns a collection representative of all countries and all ages. It includes many coins of the Biblical period, among them silver coins of the type which historians believe were like the 30 used to pay off Judas Iscariot when he betrayed Jesus. The quintuple taler he observes in the photo on this page was struck in Bohemia in 1620. A five-dollar piece it is one of the world's largest coins. Those in the case at the right foreground of the picture are ancient Chinese coins from 600 B. C. to the time of Christ, and the heavy pieces lying on the coffee table are Roman cast bronze coins of 200 B. C. Mrs. Kenneth S. Stice, 1104 South Busey avenue, gives credit for the starting of her bank collection to Prof. Arthur Colby. Professor Colby was out of town at the time the photos were made so there are none to show his extensive collection of banks of all sizes. Mrs. Stice explains the penny banks, formerly the property of banking concerns who opened them and deposited them to the depositors' accounts, eventually moved with their holders, got lost for a time, and became collectors' items. Hers include, besides "Teddy Roosevelt," another with a gun which shoots a cap. It at one time was put out by Creedmoor bank of Philadelphia. a soldier shoots the gun, while the coin produces the ringing of a bell. The little man in the foreground of the picture is "Tammany." and like a good politician pockets your coin. "Always Did 'Spice that Mule," is in the center. A small boy is unseated from his kicking mule when the coin is deposited. Another mule, in the doorway of the cabin, cavorts when the coin hits home. There is a little girl with "Speaking Dog" and "Eagles and Eaglettes" who open their mouths at the deposit of a coin which goes into their nest. Mrs. Robert G. Bone, 2106 South Race street, once used dolls to illustrate her points in children's classes. Her collection now has grown to 140. In the center of the photo may be seen a royal group made in London at the time of the coronation of the late King George VI in 1937. In the foreground are early Egyptian images dating from 1952, B. C., forerunners of the modern doll. There are Balinese, Indian, Japanese and Chinese dolls as well as those from Europe. Famous pairs include Martha and George Washington and Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln. The old-fashioned doll in white belongs to Dr. Mary Lucille Shay of the U. of I. |
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 Mrs. Kenneth S. Stice, 1104 South Busey avenue, who has a number old collections, recently showed her penny banks at D.A.R.'s Washington tea. She operates "Teddy Roosevelt and the Bear," a bank on which a gun fires an actual cap. Inserting coin causes a bear to pop from the tree trunk. |
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