when you punch in Porteous whistles you come up with an old blog of ours that asked some relavent questions about him, now known as Richard Porteous. We left it 'as is' and then added that the May SPOTLIGHT of 2013 answered most of the frustrating questions raised there.

That is the nice thing about the internet. One can make changes and update things easily for everyone to reference. When written in printed form they are hard to get back to of course to make needed corrections aren't they ??

On the other  hand ones can make guesses or outright assumptions — publish them on the internet and they get repeated over and over again because they are posted on the internet too. Not a great recipe for accurate information.

Errata like Porteous first appearing on whistles made by Stevens or saying that Porteous was an engineer or … well, it certainly is a far cry from well done research and credible resources. — you know — with recorded and verifiable bibliography.

It takes time, money and effort to PRINT — well reliably anyway….

saw an escargot on eBay yesterday….

The interesting thing was that although it is new, it actually said on it Alfred DeCourcy — stamped right on it !!! Wow !! Who makes these ?????????? DeCourcy stopped making whistles almost a hundred years ago !!! So how does this happen ???

AND then I see another White Star Line round whistle that claims to be made by Auld, who also stopped making whistles a hundred years ago. Bought out by Hudson — why don't they speak up ???

Now, the first time I saw a round like this there was this flat out lying introduction about it coming from a pursor who collected nautical items and was letting go of his private collection and I even saw one sell for hundreds of dollars. Then I saw the same lies dwindle down in price over a couple years…..Now they are 15 dollars. Hmph…always WAS 15 dollars without the smoke screen.

Then there are those handmade 'antique' brass whistles that were fraudulently sold off as old when they were new and  handmade by the same maker !!! Yup, although different 'old' looking whistles sold off by different sellers they ALL had the same hand with the same watch holding them in the pictures. Smart enough to make some well crafted frauds, but not smart enough to unload them !!!

The point being ?? >>>>>>> watch out for fakes…..caveat emptor

or not…..

In the past we have talked about refining our collecting in order to keep the collection down, curtail bills and keep things simpler for peace of mind.

However, if refined to much then it becomes very restrictive and perhaps no fun anymore.

What about expaaaaaaaansion ??

On the flip side, there is a lot to be said for variety !! Looking into different areas of whistles.

For example, one may be strictly militaria, BUT may like some police issues…

Then there are scouts, cycling, boatswains, round whistles and even more eclectic — corkscrews and extractors. All very interesting and leading into other areas like multichamber, beauforts, dog, flat whistles, and of course this leads into other areas…..

Now, what about rare makers ?? One may want to look into police issues and focus on Hudson, DeCourcy, Barrall, Dowler. All very interesting and leading into Yates, Ward, Stevens and this may lead into…

One may then wonder about different countries beyond the UK like USA, France, Germany, Russia. However this could lead to China, Israel, Argentina and yet lead to…

When one considers dates then another line of collecting developes, or perhaps models of the same design, or materials….

What is the point ?? There is multi layers of depth to this fantastic emerging area of collection, study and classification — we just need to define and redefine what we are looking for to keep it alive and fresh !!!

well, this time I have some questions for YOU !!!

What do you think of the site ??
Should we continue ??

What do you like best ??
What would you change ??

What would you like to see added ??

Over 40,000 page loads now since November….We know you are out there …..🙂