A trader’s creative gifts have gone down a storm during the first day of Newcastle’s Christmas Market. Jon Whitehouse, who operates as JCW Collectables, currently has a market stall on Grainger Street in Newcastle city centre.
The 55-year-old, who lives in Jarrow, South Tyneside, is selling frames which contain stamps, coins and notes from certain years. He has frames for dates between the 1930s and the 1980s.
He also sells frames containing coins and stamps from the time of historic events. These include the Battle of Waterloo (1815), the Battle of Rorke’s Drift (1879) and The Great War (1914-1918).
(Image: Chronicle Live)
All of his frames are priced at £35. Jon, who has been creating the frames for six years, told Chronicle Live: “It’s a present to get for someone when you don’t know what to get them! It’s unusual and bespoke.
“People say ‘I have never seen anything like that before’. They buy them for birthdays and anniversaries. The most popular ones are the ones bought for big birthdays – 50th, 60th and 70th birthdays. People give them to the older generation.
“It’s been very busy for the first day. I have had a very good reaction. Everybody likes them and they say they are very unusual. The sales have been good, I’ve sold about a dozen so far.”
(Image: Chronicle Live)
Jon, who is originally from South Staffordshire, began making the frames after trying to think of a unique product which he could sell at the market. He said: “I used to work as a postman and I thought what could I do with stamps? I started off making up years with stamps and coins and someone said ‘Why don’t you put notes in?’
“I get them from auctions and dealers. I have coins from every year from the 30s up to the 70s and 80s. Some years are harder to get than others. It’s harder to get the modern ones like the 80s, 90s and 2000s.
“Having a stall at the Christmas Market is a good way of networking and meeting other traders.”
Join our Christmas & New Year WhatsApp community
Join our Christmas & New Year in Newcastle and the North East WhatsApp community for all the latest festive news and events sent direct to your phone.
To join you need to have WhatsApp on your device. All you need to do is click on the link and press ‘join community’.
No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the ChronicleLive team.
We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners.
If you don’t like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose ‘exit group’.
If you’re curious, you can read our privacy notice.
Read The Full Story Here: Source
