Latest news with #collection
BBC News
12 hours ago
- Entertainment
- BBC News
'Collecting accordions became my dad's obsession'
Known to many throughout Europe as "the accordion man" – Ken Hopkins from County Down dedicated decades of his life to collecting and restoring the the time of his death last year, he had amassed what is thought to be one of the largest private collections of accordions in the collection contains everything from early 19th century flutinas, up to the digital models of about 750 of them are going under the hammer at a Belfast auction house priced from £10 up to a potential £5, of the more unusual items in the collection include an accordion coffee table and television, and an instrument rumoured to have been used to smuggle cash out of Colombia. Family home was 'like an accordion museum' Ken Hopkins' daughter Lisa Allen said the instruments had become an "obsession" for her father."He was a musician himself, an incredible accordionist, and he was well renowned throughout the accordion world, playing in bands for decades," she said."He started purchasing accordions, going to shows and auctions and it just escalated."He absolutely loved accordions and it became an obsession." Mr Hopkins fell in love with the accordion at a young age, and met his first wife when her father gave him instrument shaped his life. Ms Allen said there were accordions lining every room of her father's Comber took five truck loads to move them from the property to Ross's Auction House in Belfast."The house was just absolutely packed with them, five bedrooms upstairs with no room for anything else other than accordions," she said."You would arrive and there would be a coachload of people parading up and down just looking at the collection so it was like an accordion museum." 'I can't play a note' Despite growing up around accordions, neither Lisa nor her siblings inherited her father's musical capabilities and after realising they did not have the space to house the collection, the decision was taken to sell it. "It's bittersweet to see it go but I haven't a note in my head," Ms Allen said."I've had all the piano lessons, singing lessons, guitar lessons and we've had some amazing musicians at the house, bands in the living room, but I can't play a note."Music has really been a part of our lives, every birthday, every Christmas, every celebration but they need to be played."They should be played and it'll be lovely to think they'll be at somebody else's birthday, playing Happy Birthday and bring more joy."As they say, the music will go on." Angus Clarke, managing director of Ross's Auctions, said sorting through the instruments had been a "mammoth task from start to finish"."It's very unusual to have a collection of this size," he said."We believe it to be the largest private collection of accordions in the world so it's not every day you get something through the door just like this."The sheer volume of accordions themselves – picking them up, the storage facilities for them has been a bit of a handling."Also we've had to educate ourselves a lot on accordions, it's been a great challenge."We've had people from all around the world getting in touch, it's amazing how many of them know about the auction. "In particular people in eastern Europe - they have a deep-rooted musical traditional with accordions."It's a bit of an unknown but early indications suggest the auction might realise upwards of £250,000." Ms Allen said her dad would have loved the attention his collection was getting."He would love all this. He was really a showman and he enjoyed entertaining people so he would love to see how people are reacting to the collection."We've had people from Italy, America, just all over the world getting in touch. "Everyone knows dad and the collection and there are a lot of people who just want one of his accordions – nothing in particular just a piece of the Ken Hopkins collection which is nice."They've been telling us stories about him, and about some of the accordions and it's been lovely to know he was so well thought of."The rarity of Mr Hopkins' collection saw him targeted by robberies at his home a decade apart he lost accordions worth several hundred thousands of 2012, 12 of the stolen rare instruments where recovered on wasteland in County Meath in the Republic of at the time, Mr Hopkins told the BBC the thefts were something "you got used to".The Ken Hopkins Accordion Collection auction ends on August 6
CTV News
5 days ago
- Automotive
- CTV News
Massey-Harris/Ferguson tractor collection up for auction
Don Ellingson sits on the first Massey-Harris tractor he purchased from his brother to start his collection. Now, his 91 tractors are up for auction. Don Ellingson has 91 Massey-Harris and Massey-Ferguson tractors at his Springbank acreage northwest of Calgary that he's putting up for auction. It's the first time he's had his collection all at one location after he moved 43 home in April that were on loan to Pioneer Acres of Alberta in Irricana. 'It's time,' he said. 'My health is starting to fail me, being an old mechanic, and it's time to sell the acreage and move to somewhere where somebody else can cut the grass and shovel the snow.' He has a passion for fixing things and started collecting the iconic Canadian brand in 1990. At one time, Ellingson's collection was up to 107 tractors. Some have been fully restored, while others are in various stages of disrepair, but they all play a role in Alberta's farm history. 'I'm a little bit sad that I have to lose them,' he said. 'The hardest tractor for me to sell is the first tractor that I bought from my brother (Darrel) that I still have sitting out in the field.' Ellingson says the Massey part of the name comes from Vincent Massey, who was the 18th Governor-General of Canada. The Harris name has ties to the art world and the Group of Seven, something that piqued the interest of Beth Ellingson, Don's wife, who was an art teacher for 32 years. 'One of the Group of Seven was Lawren Harris,' she said. 'I never realized until many years later that Lawren Harris was a member of the Harris family, who had a farm implements company, and then lo and behold, Don starts collecting Massey-Harris tractors, and so it just kind of seemed like our worlds were converging.' Beth and Don have travelled all over Western Canada and the northern U.S. attending antique tractor pull events over the years, where they were also tractor shopping. The couple celebrated their 45th wedding anniversary at the beginning of July, and Beth says she's received some interesting gifts over the years. 'It was our 15th wedding anniversary, being married in July, you know, holidays and such,' she said. 'We went to an auction that was in Manitoba, and I got a tractor as a gift for our anniversary.' Don says Massey was a worldwide company in the 1930s, and 50 years later it was bigger than John Deere and Case IH because of that global footprint. He says even today there are factories in the U.S. and France, and the brand is still popular in Europe. The auction is attracting interest from all over the world. 'Australia, London, all the tractors will sell worldwide, and the reproduction parts that I sell will sell mostly in Western Canada,' he said. 'Eighty to 85 per cent run, and the other ones, some of them don't run, but some of them will be lawn art because if they have steel wheels, they look good on the corner of the fence, and the tires don't go flat.' Beth says each tractor has a story behind it because they were part of farm families in Western Canada. 'It is a big part of our history here in Alberta and the whole agriculture scene,' she said. 'These monsters were breaking the soil and earning a living for generations of farm families.' Don says many of the tractors should sell for around $1,500, but some of the restored machines could fetch as much as US$10,000. 'It's on online auction, and the viewing goes from July 14 to 18,' he said. 'The lots start closing at (8 a.m.) on (July 19) and close one after another, so they figure it'll be 7 or 8 (p.m.) before they're all closed.' You can learn more about the auction at
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Lifestyle
- Yahoo
I'm obsessed with lululemon bags. 12 of the very best crossbody bags, totes and more for summer 2025
There's just something about a lululemon bag — maybe it's the practicality, the trendiness or the way they somehow go with virtually everything. Each one I own has become a staple in my daily rotation. The retailer drops new styles and colours every week (very bad news for my wallet), and I'm always on the lookout for a new bag to add to my collection. If you're looking for summer 2025 style inspiration, I rounded up the very best lululemon bags available to shop right now. From cute mini bags to trendy carry-alls, help me out by snapping these up before I go broke.
Vogue
07-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Vogue
Isabel Marant Resort 2026 Collection
When Isabel Marant, the brand, goes in for romance, it's always with a touch of grit. Take florals: garden blooms may be the classic trope for spring, but here creative director Kim Bekker grafted them with a lashing of Victoriana and the Far West to come up with a different, more nuanced attitude. 'We wanted to create a compelling contrast between delicate and tough elements,' Bekker offered during a showroom preview. She wasn't just talking about the women's pre-collection; the men's lineup was plenty poetic, too. When treated as all-over motifs, florals cropped up sprinkled like polka dots over a draped jersey dress, or as a kind of a hybrid between an ikat and a tie-dye motif. More impactful, however, were abstractions rendered through laser cutting on a white leather minidress or etched in metal studs and gradient eyelets on a black velvet jacket. Fans who go in for a little cowboy inspo will have fun with the western-leaning blouse and black dress here. But this collection is just as much about Victoriana, with cinched waists, ruffles, and revisited mutton sleeves-as-power shoulders. Refreshingly, save a couple of very pretty numbers in densely-enough worked lace, the brand isn't leaning hard on transparency. 'Sexiness doesn't need to be nakedness,' Bekker quipped. Instead, soft fabrics, faux fur, and lace made for easy, feminine silhouettes muscled up a bit with strong statement earrings. Edginess came in staples like raw denim, leather jackets, and boots that nodded westward but were carefully dosed and filtered by way of the Place des Victoires. Speaking of Parisian chic, the cult, slouchy, minuscule-heeled Edrik boot is back for tucking in billowy trousers or pairing with stick-straight jeans, now with laser-cut moons that wink as the wearer walks. But there's a new low ballerina boot in town, too: the Ferix seems to be Isabel Marant's answer to mesh. Take a closer look, and you'll see those cut-outs are tiny hearts—how in the world they pulled that off without going 'cute' is the brand's secret sauce.
Daily Mail
03-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Donatella's golden goodbye: Kate Moss leads model salute in farewell that also has a silver lining
While most people might leave their job clutching a scented candle or a carriage clock, when you're Donatella Versace, the event merits more than just a quick office whip-round. To mark the release of her final collection for the fashion house she's helmed for almost 30 years, the well-loved designer assembled a bevy of her closest friends for a leaving do, of sorts. The fact that said friends are supermodels meant it would have been rude not to turn the party into a fashion shoot – and of course it featured her signature gold and silver chainmail dresses. Luckily, famed photographers Mert and Marcus (Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott) were on hand to capture the antics of 25 models including Kate Moss, Claudia Schiffer and Amber Valetta, and make the images into Versace's new autumn/winter ad campaign. As befits the end of an era, the campaign features a 'greatest hits' compilation of the classic Versace chainmail dresses that over the years have found favour with fans including Angelina Jolie, Britney Spears, Blake Lively and Elizabeth Hurley. While some in the campaign will be available to buy next season, others are archive pieces from the 1990s and early 2000s. Seasoned fashion-watchers may recall a young Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell wearing silver iterations to the Golden Globes in 1999. In 2017, to mark the 20th anniversary of Gianni Versace's death, Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, Helena Christensen, Carla Bruni and Claudia Schiffer made a rare catwalk appearance in matching silver chainmail evening dresses. And if you're wondering whether to splash out on a new chainmail mini dress, which costs in the region of £3,000, it's worth bearing in mind that the original nineties versions can fetch up to £15,000 on resale sites. 'Empowered' is how Donatella, 69, described feeling to her 12.4million Instagram followers on witnessing the shoot. 'The energy was extraordinary,' she added. 'The dresses reflect the light radiating from these amazing women. 'It was all about friendship, loyalty and love, created to celebrate the soul of the Versace woman. 'Every collection is a story, and this is the story of Versace, inspiring the present and anticipating the future.' For Donatella, who has helmed Versace since her brother, Gianni, was brutally murdered in 1997, the future is uncertain. In March, Versace was sold to Prada Group in a $1.375billion (£1.06billion) deal that unites two of the biggest brands in Italian fashion, cementing Donatella's decades-long friendship with designer Miuccia Prada and furthering Prada Group's plans to build a 'Made in Italy' luxury goods conglomerate in the vein of French giants LVMH and Kering. While Donatella will remain chief brand ambassador, she will no longer be creative director, watching the new 'Versada' era unfold from a position of greater freedom, if not control.
