InsectNet forum

Butterfly Art Jewelry color plates

Many thanks for this post, 58chevy - it really made my day! I just got hit by a tidal wave of nostalgia. I haven't seen this Butterfly Company catalogue in perhaps 45 years now - I was probably only around 6 years old the last time I laid eyes on it, and yet, I can still vaguely remember it. You're really fortunate to have a copy - I can't imagine that there would be very many of these still around at this point, especially in such good condition. What a great piece of entomological memorabilia.

Wow, totally awesome !!

This catalog preceded the "Butterfly Company" catalog which came into being when Mr. Glanz moved his business from Brooklyn New York to Far Rockaway New York.

I have one of the Butterfly Company catalogs but, I will have to search for it.

This is a Watkins & Doncaster catalogue from a few years ago. The firm is a sort of British version of Bioquip. Naphthalene was still available to buy here in the U.K. in this catalogue That is no longer the case.

I have one of those 250ml cans of Watkins and Doncaster napthalene sitting on my bug room desk right now! Came to me from the estate of
an expat British collector who lived in Haiti, then in the US. Still full of crystals; he apparently never used much of it. It's nice to have a relic from the old company.

jh

Naphthalene is still available in the USA, but probably not for long.

I presume Watkins & Doncaster still exists....

Has it changed very much ?

Do they still provide equipment for collectors in the UK and abroad ? Do they still offer specimens from old collections being parted out ? Has anything else changed dramatically ?

They're still going strong but relocated to another part of England when Robin Ford decided to take a back seat and his daughter took over the company. I'm not sure that they still have premises open to the public as I believe that they're purely mail order now. I would guess that they still have a stand at the major shows, I'll find out on Saturday at the AES exhibition. They don't sell specimens from old collections any more.

Another long time entrepreneur amongst the
dealer "group" here was Chuck Ianni.

One of Mr. Ianni's later catalog efforts (mid-1990's)
resulted in this brief 4 page colorized version of his
offerings. Previous to this, I don't recall him producing
anything in color and at best only provided black/white
figures/drawings.

Some pretty decent offerings for the mid-90's....

In the early 1980's I purchased one of the Butterfly Co.
insect hobby starter kits. They were (by then) cheaply
disposing of their various supplies and book inventory;
to focus on just insect sales. So, I bought a kit (on a lark)
figuring I'd never see another one.

Enclosed in my kit was this 4 page supplement of which
3 whole pages were dedicated to their African offerings.
Pretty good I'd say and I'm sorry now that I really didn't
order up a bunch of these things for later working-up.







The back page still offered their butterfly (sets) offerings.

Ah, Butterfly Company! I never ordered anything from them until they were going out of business. They had some super sale of unidentified paper material in bulk, I wound up with thousands of mostly South American Saturnidae and Ceratocampidae for next to nothing. This is the first time I've seen the catalog.

bobw wrote: Tue Sep 27, 2022 4:16 pm They're still going strong but relocated to another part of England when Robin Ford decided to take a back seat and his daughter took over the company. I'm not sure that they still have premises open to the public as I believe that they're purely mail order now. I would guess that they still have a stand at the major shows, I'll find out on Saturday at the AES exhibition. They don't sell specimens from old collections any more.

Hi Bob
They were still selling specimens from old collections when I last visited them in the new premises in Leominster three years ago.

Oh, OK Dave, I didn't realise they were still open to the public.