General News
21 February, 2023
Green bottles on wall
JED Paton is fast running out of wall space for his growing collection of bottles. The nine-year-old has already displayed more than 450 bottles of all shapes, sizes and colours since getting the collector’s bug and searching bushland around the...
JED Paton is fast running out of wall space for his growing collection of bottles.
The nine-year-old has already displayed more than 450 bottles of all shapes, sizes and colours since getting the collector’s bug and searching bushland around the family’s home at Inglewood.
He is even venturing to clearing sales across the district hoping to pick up a bargain.
Jed has a reputation for determination to win at auction. “They don’t seem to bid against me,” he said.
The pride and joy of Jed’s expanding collection quickly filling a garage wall is find No 1.
Jed said he was looking for bottles in Old Inglewood bushland when he discovered a blue castor oil bottle, possibly from the turn of the previous century.
“I have found bottles as old as the 1850s,” he said. Among the more unique is one stamped EP Johns Inglewood.
But there are risks associated with Jed’s bushland bottle hunts, once being bitten by a bullant.
Parts of Jed’s collection is being displayed in a tobacco cabinet that was at Inglewood’s Adelphi Hotel that last served thirsty patrons in 1914.
Jed’s fascination with bottles and history has already seen him as a guest speaker at the town’s historical society.
“It’s fun finding bottles and going to auctions and sales to try and buy more for the collection,” Jed said. Grandfather Howard Rochester is also encouraging Jed’s interest in bottle collecting and regularly drives him to auctions.
And as for the family’s collection of mining memorabilia from the 19th century, Jed thinks he may need to take over some of the space its uses to store bottles in boxes found on a recent scout of local bushland.