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New Zealand Miniature Bottle Club

NZMBCMember - Robin Mellish


My Name is Robin Mellish and I live in Christchurch. I started collecting bottles about 50 years ago with three or four of my close friends who also collected. Unfortunately none of them carried on collecting. My first miniatures were placed on a pelmet of a venetian blind in a small room which my father had built behind our garage.


I consider myself lucky that my wife comes from Scotland and her relations have sent me a considerable number of bottles over the years, especially from the Loch Fye bottle shop. I have also visited Scotland twice and bought a considerable number of minis in Glasgow, Edinburgh and up to the isle of Harris.Other trips abroad have included to the US, Mexico, South America and numerous trips to Australia on all of which I have been able to further my collection. A recent trip has been to Europe, UK and South Africa. The highlight of the trip was our visit to the MIniature Bottle Museum in Oslo, Norway.


Over the years I have swapped miniatures with lots of collectors around the world. I now have in excess of 15,000 bottles, both straight and ceramic. I have a room dedicated to my minis which was originally a caravan port. Like everyone else finding space for new minis is always a problem but a problem that is always solved. The 2010/11 Canterbury earthquakes caused a considerable amount of damage to my collection - but nothing will make me give up collecting!


I was South Island Vice President of the club for many years and have hosted numerous meetings.


I have hundreds of swaps and always welcome enquiries.


Contact Details

Email:        


My Favorite Bottle

The Sahara from Raintree is certainly my favorite ceramic mini.


Click on the image below for Robin's favorite bottle