Jon's Hobby Collections

Another collection of mine ??? Answer is YES !!!!! I have a few teapots here in my vintage collection which are given by my aunt. These teapots are commonly found ones and they are not really rare, but they certainly do come in various sizes and designs. Here is a vintage rice grain teapot from the 80s which is owned previously by my grandfather. Vintage Chinese rice grain teapot sets are much harder to find. One thing that caught my attention the most is, the teacups of this set is very uniquely design. I like how the way this tall tea cup is shaped. I have mini teapot set which are too cute to admire. These set is kept for more than 40 years already according to my mother who used to serve her grandmother tea in the past. That set actually belong to my great grandmother who used it every single day. Unfortunately, one of the cup is missing or not it would make a full complete set. Besides all those, I have Japanese tea pot as well which are souvenirs bought by my

Here is a well-maintained vintage can opener that comes fitting with a wooden handle and it was a special gift from my friend. This item is commonly used by local kopitam (Coffeeshop) back in the 60s and 70s. The sharp can opener are use to punch holes to opened up the milk can. In those days, there was no lifting opener installed on the top of the cans unlike these days. I have another can opener which is owned by my grandmother for the last 60 years. This vintage can opener is made by J. Watts. Pat back in the 1950s era. According to my dad who used this often, mention that it is very common to see presence of rust on top of these can openers. He also mentioned that in his younger days, these sharp pointed openers have many other uses such as acting as a cuter to cut objects like cardboard when the scissors isn't available. These days those sharp spikes pointed can opener are rarely to be found in the markets. Since technology have improved products over time

Here is a vintage Indian granite mortar and pestle which is almost 50 years old. The shape on the Indian pestle is flat headed at the top whereas for the Chinese design is fat rounded pestle. After a long time of grinding the herbs or chilies, the surface of the pestle will be ended up smooth and this will happen also to the inner surface bowl of the mortar. The height of this mortar is 14 cm and had a depth of 10 cm with an outer diameter of 22 cm. These days, granite pounder are rarely to be found as these days granite material had become expensive. Not only the material became expensive but the workmanship in order to craft and shape these mortar and pestle are pricey too. Therefore, the most common material use now to make these are cement and it isn't strong unlike granite. Those days granite are known for its solidity and if you accidentally drop these mortar and pestle, you could easily break the marble flooring of your house.

Anglo Chinese School has been founded on 1st March 1886 in a shophouse located in Singapore. Soon, Anglo Chinese School (ACS) started to expand larger and have campus across Singapore island. Today ACS, have primary, secondary, junior college (A-levels) and international baccalaureate options for students to go for. Yes you know it !!! The date recorded was in the year 1974 by ACS military band back then. These are the songs that they have been practicing hard over the months. I bet they did it extremely well until the principal decided to compress their performance into a vinyl piece which is a rare hard effort. Back then, there were only a few companies in Southeast Asia which produces vinyl and did pressing for them. It is challenging to develop vinyl records if you are only doing in low quantities like in hundreds. Using my smart guess, I bet that the school decided to go for the minimum order quantity and sold those vinyls in school and those who participated in the ba

Old shophouses in the past used to have these retro wooden window doors back then. You can see them commonly in old towns like Ipoh, Taiping, Penang and many more places across Malaysia. Some of the doors you seen in older shophouses are originally made in the 1940s or older. These doors are made from extremely hard teakwood where they can't be eaten or infested with termites easily. These woods are very strong and heavy too, that's why they are good building materials in the past. These doors belong to my grandma's old shophouse located in Johor, Malaysia which are one of the original ones where only a few of these doors remain there in the neighboring hood. It was specially handcrafted and built by my great grandfather back in the early 1950s. In the past, it is vert common for household males to self-make their own furniture like cupboard, door, table and chair for the whole family. They do it to safe cost and also to sell them for extra income My great grand

These miniature alcoholic bottle drinks are great collectibles among everybody.  These miniature collection here is owned by my uncle.You can see there are many beautiful and cute little liquor bottles from famous brand such as Martell, Johnnie walker, DOM and many more to be listed. These bottles are also known as sample bottles, where a customer can get to taste the wine or liquor before purchasing them. Miniature bottles have been around since the 40s and the 50s and it was very popular in liquor shops from the 70s to the 80s. Miniature bottles are much rarer to be found these days as most of the liquor companies stop their production of miniature. Liquor tasting are done where the retailer will open a sample bottle (same size as the ones selling on the shelves) and pour into the glass for the client to taste. If you want to know how many bottles is needed for a full complete collection of miniature liquor, I would say easily 2000 bottles or more. It is almos

Vintage table fans are also hot collectibles for retro theme home or cafe. These fans are functional and can be used as a 2 in 1, where it serves the purpose of cooling the place and also act as a display item. It is quite rare to find a fully working condition table like this on Carousell platform or elsewhere. Mostly you will see those GEC or GE fans which are made from brass sold widely on Carousell and I would say those fans are beautiful and worth collecting. This fan is from the year 1979 by Sanyo. This fan still works even until today with constant oiling and maintenance done by my lovely dad. The blade of this vintage fan is made from hard plastic and it comes in different colours. I remember seeing blue and pink coloured blades before. Retro fan like this, do heats up easily. As you can see, there is no air ventilation for the motors to receive the cool air unlike modern table fans today. Once the motor heats up, the oil on the shaft holding the fan blade get

I have always admire the beauty of this dressing table ever since I was a kid until today. I can recall a few moments where I attempt to climb up the dressing table when I was a small adventurous kid. This dressing table belongs to my grandmother who have well kept it and brought it from her house into her home nearly 20 years ago. I am sure that many will agree with me that the oval shaped mirror is very eye catching. This mirror will be a perfect match for mirror selfie taking. This dressing table also comes with a large transparent glass panel placed on top of the wood surface for photo slotting. You can see there are many family photos being slotted under the glass. Dressing table in the past also comes with many small and cute compartments. An example to this, there is a hidden compartment at the small rectangular mirror located just below the oval shaped mirror. What sets vintage dressing table apart from other dressing table is mainly the type of wood used and soli

The term "Kopitam" is a mixture of Malay and Teochew words as the word "kopi" means coffee in Malay and the word "tam" means shop in Teochew dialect. This kopitam marble surface table have been the oldest furniture that my grandmother has kept. According to my mother, it was bought during the late 40s when my great grandparents decided to start their first business which is selling charcoal back then. The table is still in great and beautiful condition. I really admire the beautiful crafted wooden legs of this table. The table was brought back from the shop back in the early 2000s. Now it is being placed at the display corner of the living room. You can still see this kind of marble surface table in older coffeeshops and some in retro cafes. One place, surely you can still see this piece alive is at Kopitam hawker centre at Tiong Bahru shopping mall. There are many replicas of these kopitam marble tables out there, Many are beautiful cr

I would say this postcard is a rare gem among those which I have collected in the year 2012. Speaking of 2012, it is the year where Zalora just started its online business. They were very new to the market and face many competitions from giants like Ebay and Alibaba. Thus, this is a must have piece among collectors as the value of this would increase as the years goes by. They even have their own promocode on the postcard itself !!!