Crystal Collection

Timber Man With A £5,000 Crystal Collection

m a Rabaul Correspondent er contractor J. L. {Jack) , of Rabaul, is a man of icets. Timberman, truckman, ' contractor, goldminer, he r the years dabbled in many 'id made a name for himself ' than one. ember of both the Rabaul Advisory Council and of the & New Guinea Legislative , Chipper has been con active over many years in which had to do with lutification and development own of Rabaul. ew ever suspected he is also g collector of Lalique hand talware.

Lalique, it will be recalled, ore his death a few years * of France’s foremost de of crystalware and jewellery, finals are today sought after ctors in many countries, ick Chipper said: “I have all over the world looking uine examples of Lalique’s r my collection”. original Lalique (only are hand-signed on the the designer) is a glorious of the designer’s craft, iple wineglass or goblet in thin crystal contains as • wonder at in perfection of is any of the larger more lar pieces.

Chipper collection, which ore than 150 pieces and is it over £5,000, is the fruit

of at least 20 years’ searching and contains items ranging from diminutive crystal birds to huge bowls and a tablelamp base cut from a single piece of crystal rock.

Some items Chipper has bought for substantial sums—he paid £l5/15/- for a plate only a few weeks ago through one of his scouts in Sydney but many pieces cost five times as much.

Several pieces were acquired re cently when a prominent Lalique collector in France disposed of his treasures.

Others have been picked up, thanks to luck, for a mere song— such as a glorious stained crystal fruit dish, handsigned, which Chipper himself found in a Mosman, NSW, secondhand shop.

In Chipper’s tastefully furnished Rabaul home some of the Lalique treasures are kept in a large glass cabinet under lock and key.

Others are in everyday use . . . for neither Jack Chipper nor his businesswoman wife Joan, believe in owning lovely things just to hide them from sight.

pecimens from the Chipper collection.