Collecting the spice of life
Eileen Broome, 93, is a selfconfessed collector of anything from soft toys to teaspoons.
But her condimental salt and pepper shaker collection tops the lot – at a conservative estimate she has at least 500 sets.
And they are not hidden away in boxes, like many collections, but proudly displayed in a glass cabinet, taking up most of a wall in her daughter’s home.
Michelle Nelson said she was all too happy to accommodate her mum’s collection when she moved in with her three years ago.
‘‘Even as kids I remember every time we moved house dad would look to see if there was a dining room wall big enough – making sure there was room for the cabinet was always the major concern.’’ Fifty years later the collection is almost entirely intact – apart from one breakage in transit, the collection survived shaky Wellington for years.
The obsession began with Broome’s first and favourite set – two spaniels holding newspapers, which she bought in about 1952 from Farmers Trading Company in Auckland.
The most expensive set would have cost £30 back in the day and, while she has bought many herself, friends have also sent them from their travels.
‘‘There are some from Australia, Namibia, India ... I’ve got some sets of the individual states of America, but not all of them.’’
Name an animal and Broome has it in her salt and pepper cabinet: kissing giraffes, a dog cocking his leg, pigs, cats, penguins.
‘‘The only thing is I wish I’d got more horses – I’d always wanted more, but I was never able to find them.’’
The collection does not stop with animals – there is a Robert Muldoon and David Lange set, plus kitchen items like a toaster, jugs, cups and teapots, and a musical selection with guitars, a harp and a working piano.
Broome admits to having had a few risque´ salt and pepper sets, which she kept in a drawer while her children were young.
Now she can display the topless sunbather in all her glory.