Jon's Hobby Collections

For those of you, who have grew up in a shop house before, I bet that mirror like this would be commonly seen by you. These set of mirrors are actually marriage mirrors gifted during wedding ceremony in old Chinese traditional days. Mirror like this are from the 40s to the early 70s era. This mirror is very special to my family because it is my grandparents wedding gift back in the early 50s. There is a bird image beautiful crafted at the bottom of the mirror. Some mirrors have even colour engraving on them and they are much more expensive. These mirrors are extremely hard to come by these days.  A pair of mirror like this in good condition is worth about 200 Singapore Dollars. I decided to take it down the mirrors to snap a few clearer photos of it. Right side Left side

A lot of people told me that this claw grabber is a very rare item. According to a vintage collector, he shared with me that this claw grabber is one of its kind and it is no longer seen in production ever since it disappeared back in the early 70s. This claw grabber functions to help you to take out hot plates and stuff from the steamer pot. This piece here is made from aluminium and there is a few Chinese words engrave on the top of the grabber.  The words couldn't be seen clearly therefore, I couldn't do a translation here. When open According to my mum who used it back then told me that this grabber will sometimes become stiff and harden up making it difficult to grab things.  When close She even shared with me a technique on smoothing up by washing it with soap and water. When my friend first saw this, she told me that this grabber looks the same as the ones in the claw machine at the shopping centre. HAHAHA, actually it does look a like.

Ever wonder how does an old vintage cupboard looks like ?? Well I found one perfect example to share with you guys. Here is a rare vintage dressing cupboard from the late 40s or maybe during the early 50s era. This cupboard is specially belongs to my late great grandmother who have owned it for the longest period of time. Made from solid teak wood, this piece here is really a big white elephant in the house. I remember it takes about 3 people to carry this cupboard from upstairs the old shop house into my grandma's home. Another feature about this cupboard is that it has these unique antique made locks installed on it. These locks are commonly found on antique furniture during the early 50s era or before that. Therefore, this piece here makes a good display item for vintage lovers. The drawers for this cupboard are hard to pull out, as the drawer wood is sitting on top of the wood frame of the cupboard. Therefore, there is a lot of friction force when you pull open the drawers. ...

Dutch Baby originated in the year 1954 under the company Friesland (Malaya) Pte Ltd. At that time, the main task for that company is to import fresh milk from Holland and market them in Malaya and Singapore. In the year 1963, the company made a change to their name and decided to name it Pacific Milk Industries (Malaya) Sdn Bhd when Malaysia became Independence. Besides the name change, the decision to move the factory to Petaling Jaya that provides them a wider space for storage and processing happen too. After 12 years, the company decided to change their name to Dutch baby Milk Industries (Malaya) Berhad. The brand Dutch Baby was then change to Dutch Lady in the year 1984. Therefore from that previous history shared above, we now know that the brand Dutch Baby no longer exist and it is a good opportunity to collect their items. This tupperware is from the early 80s, just before the change of their brand from Dutch Baby to Dutch Lady. You can even see the old Dutch Baby logo shaped o...

This is my first time seeing a radiator coolant being shaped in a 3 piece metal can with a ring to open the lid like how you open a normal soda can drink.  It is a rare collectible item as all radiator coolant are placed in plastic containers these days unlike the past. Top of the can From far, it looks like a normal soda drink can. This M power radiator coolant is made in United States of America. It could be marketed in the 80s here in Malaysia and Singapore. Based on a google search, the company is no longer exist and it could have been replace or disappeared long ago.

I am not a smoker and I hate to smoke. The reason why I collect this item is because my great grandmother was a heavy smoker in the past. She started smoking at a young age and after that quitting smoking at the age of almost 80 years old when she felt ill for a few day. Back then, my mum and other of the grandchildren would play hide and seek with her cigarette containers and lighters around the house to prevent her from smoking during her transition period of quitting smoking. One a recent discovery, I found a huge bundle of cigarette box and you can check my collection of them here . This one, I bought online at Carousell with a cheap price of 5 Singapore dollars. I like the cute design of this vintage plastic container. This packaging is mostly likely during the 80s to the early 90s. Today's world, cigarette boxes are all in cardboard boxes with images of smoker's lungs and other scary images on the consequences of smoking. Thus, cigarette box like this are rare items t...

To obtain a telephone to be installed in a shophouse after world war 2, you had to go through many procedures such as paying rent for the telephone, payment for wire installation and also payment of subscription for the first year. Oriental Telephone and Electric is the only company in Malaya that provide electricity and telephone services and are managed by the Englishman. After the war in 1947, many shophouses and residence decided to obtain a landline phone for calling purpose and there was a lot of people applying for it back then. The charging rate of using the telephone service during 1947 to 1957 is 175 Malaya dollars for a business unit and 140 Malaya dollars for a residence unit and this chargers are based on per annum basis. The charging rate increased from 1st July 1958 with a new rate of 250 Malayan dollars and 180 Malayan dollars per annum for business unit and residence unit respectively. Back then, it was really expensive and not many people could afford to have a landli...

Here are some of my cousin's old piano test sheet from the year 1993 to 2000.  These test papers are well kept and there are writings on it.  I used to play piano back in my primary school days and quit a few years later because I lost interest in it.  These piano test paper can be very useful for some of you guys. Plus it is vintage, maybe you want to collect them also can. I am selling this whole set for 10 Singapore Dollars.

Old school stools like this kind are real collectibles and bonus comes in when the stools are in great condition.  It was my mum's favorite stool back then when she was a little girl. She can recall many clear memories of her climbing up the stool and falling down from it. She can recall that this stool acts like a fortress or a small house to her back then.  I was laughing out loud when she shared her happy and funny moments that she had with this stool. More about this stool, it is made from real hardwood solid stool made in the 50s era. On top of the surface of the stool, there is a green formica wood that my grandfather decided to add on top of it for beauty looks or not it would be a plain wooden dark brown stool. This stool is very solid and heavy in weight. This piece is very beautiful and it is worth keeping and using it.

Here is an old school rice sampling tool. It has been kept by my great grandmother for more than 60 years already. According to my mum, she told me that my great grandmother will use this tool to help check whether is there any rice bugs or impurities inside the rice before purchasing them in bulk. My great grandmother used to buy rice in 30 kilograms sacks and store them up as there were many people living under one roof in the past. There will always be a time where my great grandmother would buy rice in huge amounts without fail and that is during Chinese New Year as hundreds of my relatives will come back fro all over the world and celebrate it together with great grandmother.  This rice sampling tool is made out of iron and have a measurement of 23 cm in length. According to many vintage collectors, this is a rare tool and it is worth keeping it.

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...

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...

In Malay language, this basket is known as Bakul Sia and it is commonly used during Baba Nyona and sometimes traditional Chinese wedding. This kind of basket is used by the bridegroom family to carry gifts which includes food and gift in the form of money to the bride family. Back in the past, red packets were not used for passing money during wedding ceremony unlike today.The actions of giving gifts using money is known as Mas Kahwin in Malay. In return, the bridegroom will usually return a portion of the gifts and this is done by the bridegroom family which signify goodwill. This basket belongs to my grandmother who got married in 1955. This basket here is very carefully preserved and taken care of. One thing that attracts me the most about this basket is that it is hand painted beautifully and I really admire the art work on this basket. According to my grandma, the trick to preserve basket like this is to properly wrap in a few layers of black opaque plastic and p...