Cootamundra Antique Motor Club Awards
Mug of the Club
For many years the Mug of the Club has been full circle around club members.
It was made by Malcolm Chaplin back in the mid 1980’s when he ran a mobile automotive workshop and this is it’s story.
Years ago Malcome was at a farm overhauling an Isuzo Truck engine and an idea was borne. A worn cylinder liner from the truck gave Malcolm the idea that the old cylinder was such a work of art, that it ought to be a trophy for The CAMC.
And so he made a mug.
- The handle is the exterior door-handle from an AP6 Valiant.
- The brass bush the handle sits on – is part of a Massey Tractor transmission.
- The beer stein lid – is from a Kenworth exhaust stack.
- And the clear base – is cut from a car number plate protector.
- Finally one of our club badges was suitably bent and glued onto the side.
It holds about 2 Litres. Malcolm says that in his drinking days he had filled up this mug (which was once inside a truck engine, remember), – and – Bottoms Up!!
Now then, Bottoms Up — a popular expression uttered before drinking, dates back to the days when men were ‘press-ganged’ into the Navy by accepting the Queen’s shilling, surreptitiously dropped into their beer glasses. In downing the contents of their glasses and removing the coin, they were deemed to have been paid for a lifelong service in Her Majesty’s Navy. There is an Australian 10 cent piece in memory of the Kings Shilling.
The only way to see if a coin (the Queen’s shilling) had been dropped into one’s mug or tankard, was to equip them with a glass bottom. . . .then one could raise the glass and have a look before drinking. Bottoms Up!