Clive's open day 2017.

[nomad]

Clive's open day was a real success again this year with around 30 entomological enthusiasts attending. Many thanks to Clive and his wife for making it such a wonderful day. I was able to take a few pics.

[trehopr1]

WOW, what a premier personal collection to see. The fine cabinetry alone is what modest collectors like myself only dream of. Absolutely love his curation and his use of typewritten info. labels placed next to his historic specimens such as in the 3rd photograph. A world class collection... Bravo !
A special thanks Nomad for the photo's you did take. What would you gauge as being the collections strengths ? Is Clive strictly a lepidopterist or does he fancy any other side Orders or families ?

[nomad]

Clive has a super large World coll of Lepidoptera and Coleoptera. One of my favourites is the Australian cabinet. The British  collection of Leps is probably by far the best in private hands, being super rich in historical specimens and aberrations, housed in some very fine cabinets. 

[wollastoni]

Congrats to Clive for organizing this event.
This is what entomology is all about : building a reference collection and sharing the passion with others !
Hope to attend it in the future.

[luehdorfia]

I was there last year and Clive’s collection is just not possible to describe in words. His historical English P. coridon aberrations are just amazing, some collectors might have one or two blue females but he has at least 100 or 200? Right nomad ?
I was just speechless and time past extremely fast, between looking at his collection and exchanging collector knowledge. I hope next year I can make it again.

[nomad]

Very true the British Lycaenidae are really special as is opening each drawer of Clive's collection. The last British entomologist to have these kind of open days was Bob Watson in the early 1980s, but because there was no social media then, those attending were often part of his circle. Watson who lived on the margins of the New Forest had one of the finest Lysandra coridon collection of aberrations that he left with the rest of his collection to the BMNH. Watson's British collection was very rich in all types of abs and was housed in 60 hill cabinets.    My copy of Journal of Entomology and Natural History published by BENHS has just landed on my doormat and inside is a fascinating article, Notes on Society History : Bob Watson's Open Days and the New Forest Clique, written by Tony Pickles who attended Watson's events . The author Tony was at Clive's open day, he is a power house of information and a very nice chap to boot.