Under the pump

Andrew Mathieson
COLLECTING couple Tony and Chris Lewis could be excused for walking into work everyday wondering what year it is.
In their treasure trove world, petrol bowsers still read in miles per gallons and giant ice-cream cones front the corner milk bar.
For the avid motor buff or sign memorabilia hoarder, the display at Antique Auto Garage is like stepping back in time.
“We get into trouble when we buy because it’s all in feet and inches,” Tony quips.
“They convert it because I don’t know what metric is.”
The couple’s North Geelong shopfront is like a museum except it comes with price tags. The assortment of trinkets from trash and treasure markets, swap meets and collector’s events don’t come cheap.
Not that the old-world collectors seem to mind.
Lining the front window is a collection of genuine and replica bowsers and pumps.
The 1930s Australian Texaco reproductions look brand new – then, like most of the relics, they are gone.
Selling for around $20,000, everything has a price.
“When Tony started collecting these old bowsers, people looked at him strange and asked what the heck he was doing with those old things,” Chris recalls.
“Now it’s grown to be very lucrative.”
It’s hard not to admire the pure craftsmanship behind the bowsers and enamel signs. In the workshop, they lay strewn across the cold concrete floor, battered and rusting having seen better days.
With a stroke of paint, a subtle touch and lots of loving care, the husband and wife team bring their decaying “garagenalia” back to life.
“I first collected this stuff and did a few pumps up for myself,” Tony says.
“Then Chris fixed a few signs for me.
“Then people would ask ‘Who did that?’ and ask Chris to do theirs for them.”
While Tony, a former mechanic, does a lot of the grunt work, Chris is a dab hand at painting on the authentic look. The work is a throwback to signwriting on shop windows and ticket writing for department stores when Chris was still a teenager.
Chris still keeps some favourites, like a Bushells Blue Label Tea – a real piece of Australiana – around the workshop, even just to have a glance occasionally.
“I fixed this for a guy who had this sign as well, so we traded this one to do another job for him,” she says.
Chris then points to an 1890 Metal Como Paste sign whose painted portrait looks fitting to hang off a wall in a Romanesque gallery.
Tony views the restored piece just like a work of art, before smiling and snorting out: “That sign was a ripper”.
“Some of these signs are over 100 years old.”
Another sign, for early-century Zebra brake polish, had a violent end when someone shot the eyes out of the animal’s picture.
Tony looks around for a similar story and finds a Coopers Best Sheep Dip sign.
“It has a bit of history to it,” he hints.
“There are marks where someone put an axe through the sign. That was done during the shearers’ strike in the ’30s.
“A Kiwi bloke had just had enough.”
Sure enough, Chris will repair – even call for a spot of welding – the damage to return the signs to mint condition.
The Grovedale couple even stocks a 1930s Shell petrol clam, a 1950s Victa toe-cutting mower and a priceless Peter’s cone with a dripping ice-cream sculpture on top.
For years, their private collection littered the family home.
They were forced to open up a tiny display in a box-like South Geelong shop just to move the vast numbers of items out.
“We had some of the bowsers inside the house in the entry hall,” Tony says.
“We also had old display cabinets full of stuff.
“It was inside an old house, then we ended up buying a new house and all that old stuff sort of didn’t go together.”