Collectibulldogs

A few weeks ago, my human and I found a pawsomely cool artist on LinkedIn and want to share his story with you!

HI THIS IS MY STORY 

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Hi there avid readers of FROM THE DOGS PAW my name is Eiffion Ashdown I'm a English gent or cockney geeza as some might put, either way I'm from England and I live in a city on the south coast with my wife and daughter, we share our home with our second rescued bulldog "scruffy Louise" and a little cat called Bonnie (the biggest of mischief makers) and I'm here as I want to tell you my story.

Let's start a decade ago and move forward so, ok ten years back I was a plasterer I was 28 and care free with money coming in a lovely partner and a smart beautiful little girl life was good or even great for someone that age, this all changed after I contracted a heredity mental health disorder and I got even more ill as time went on.

My medication soon put a stop to my employment I was let go and let this eat away at my hopes and dreams not only ones I have but any future ones that my daughter may have because I couldn't afford to pay for future bills like her university and this caused great anxiety and sleepless nights until one day I had a brainwave.

COLLECTIBULLDOGS 
Great name do you not think? I came up with the name a few years after I started what is now one of the worlds largest most diverse antique bulldog memorabilia collections but let's go back a bit. Seven years ago I got the idea to start a collection that may one day be good enough to do well at auction, giving my daughter a fighting chance at becoming what she wants by going to university and getting a great vocation.

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When I started I was naive to many topics I thought my pieces were the bees knees and worth the world, I started buying bulldog pieces but had no knowledge at the time to what I was really doing. Then it just clicked one day I cannot explain it but my knowledge about this genre just sky rocketed and the collection started showing quality, and it was then that I realized there was a world of bulldog memorabilia collectors out there all with differing pieces in their collections and a wealth of knowledge to first learn from and now teach others.

ACHIEVING THE IMPOSSIBLE 
I was going to list my accolades and achievements last but there's not to many so I'll tell you how far I've taken Collectibulldogs and then tell you about the collection itself.  Ok so far I have appeared on the radio (Heart FM) I've been in the local Brighton paper, I appear on other websites like the Boston Terrier Rescue network and I know I'm bulldog related but like some others they believe in me and are very sincere in helping to promote my venture.

I'm waiting to appear in a national paper here in the UK it was meant to of been out at Christmas but a mix up meant I'm still waiting for that to be rectified, Here's where I really come into my own here regarding affirmative feelings for ones self.  Collectibulldogs (and me lol) only managed to pull off the impossible and get a museum listing that immortalizes my collection and the breed cementing the foundations for the very first museum listed bulldog collection.

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It does not stop there though, I mean I have two rooms with around 3500 pieces and no one can see it except my family and guests so I did the next best thing to collecting and I created Ccollectibulldogs, its only the very first website of its kind to produce an in-depth content driven layout for bulldog collectors,owners, any enthusiasm really is loved at Collectibulldogs we even have repeat visitors that do not even collect but just love the website.

The ending here is that I'm now seen as an online influence this happened unwittingly and I now have a combined social media presence with around 90k-110k followers on all my medias, I run a Facebook group with 7600 members and my page has about 8k likes, this lol came about with either people becoming fans or my endless promoting and great to know I have a little community of my own.

Everything we do at Collectibulldogs is free, liquidating help, assistance,researching,information, artist exposure, bulldog related swap help.

THE COLLECTION 
Well there wouldn't be a website if there was not this collection I've been talking about so why not slow things down a little as I tell you about what I have obtained these past six years, for the purpose of the website there are three main galleries and named as such this is because there is so much I had to narrow down the pigeonhole names for the site.

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The first of the main galleries is the ceramics and glass and this huge page shows all the ceramic, pottery, glass, Chrystal pieces I've bought from around the world, there are many countries that have made their own versions of bulldogs and hundreds can be found on this page. Wether you like English or European pottery or pieces from Asia and the states then it's here.  The three main countries to erupt my medium with beautiful collectibles are the uk Germany and Denmark with other countries having bulldog memorabilia just not lots. Collectibulldogs,Ceramics and Glass Gallery.

Out of the three I think describing metals and more Is the longest as it covers so many topics and would leave you thinking "is he ever going to stop", In this section are all my bronze pieces antique and modern, all my silver pieces (some pieces dating back 200 years), there's my metal figurines my antiques from yesteryear and this goes on from Victorian inkwells to little brass door knockers and everything else in between.

The silver itself could be seen as a collection I have so many pieces then there's the jewellery the trophies the medals rosettes ribbons, I'm not making all this up I really have been a very busy dad collecting all this with that one sole purpose in mind, other pieces include Mack trucks memorabilia, Bergman bronzes, lots of miniature bulldog figurines and there's even more but I feel we should stop there, we have a saying in the uk it goes 'the proof is in the pudding' it basically means once you have looked you will believe this far fetched of tales even I think WOW sometimes. Collectibulldogs, Metals

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I maybe wrong here I sometimes am!, but I think the last of the galleries will be the most interesting out of them all to a big proportion of the FROM THE DOGS PAW readers and that's my Books and Art section of galleries, this is jam packed with paintings signed and unsigned some known some unknown and a couple of artists I've even helped.  There's sketches, drawings, postcards, photos,Clippings,old documents, though to painted tiles, wall plaques and even fridge magnets we are that diverse.

Books are a plenty in the collection we have books pre world war there's a selection from America and even rare books like the bulldog standard from 1913 a bible if you will to the proper breeding of the bulldog, so important even the English kennel club were interested.  If I didn't have my own dream of own day owning/ opening my own museum I would of gave them it, my latest book is by two time World bulldog judge and a winner himself 149 times mr Norman Davis whom is now a friend of mine a great advocate to my venture and signed my book and sent it as a gift so I put it in the collection.

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From the top of my head I can say Collectibulldogs owns artworks from the likes of Pollyanna Pickering, Dick Twinney, Tom Wilcox and more current artworks from new artists like loulabelle hales and her sugar skull creations to monty bower a Facebook favourite that I've helped and is now an accomplished colours artist, whereas before she only had the confidence to use plain pencil until I sold her first pieces and she now has orders all the time.

The other two names I know of that are here are Boris o Kline and Cecil Aldin, both of these artists are what I call cartoony in style, Boris painted / illustrated the dirty dogs of Paris! A series of funny pictures where a bunch of different breeds are getting into trouble with his story centring around a small white bulldog and Cecil Aldin is famous for he's illustrations and for the book The Little Rascal where many of his works can be seen.  All artists mentioned are easy to obtain and affordable I may have some corkers here but without time for researching knowledge on art it's a chore I will have to put to one side for now Collectibulldogs, Books Art.

EXTRAS

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The website is brand new I had this done when my collection gained museum status it has a live twitter feed, a forum, a brilliant blog archive, Utube, a funny pics page where you the reader can submit pictures to be added, I've added my own bulldog to the header she's so cute it was a no brainer and since the last website that I made I now have Ts and Cs as well as translate and my most important aspect THE SHARE BUTTONS.  I'm a stay at home dad I cannot afford promotion so when people go on recognise a media they are on and share my site it's like gold dust and very much appreciated.

Before I go I would like to say that the next step for us is a local exhibition this year I will be displaying my collection as part of a bigger project I'm in and after that with some hard work and god willing I will be having my very own exhibition which I'm hoping Is the start of a social enterprise. I'm not about money so I want to stick with museums that way the collection get loaned out, stays together, and my daughter has a long term nest egg all I need to sort out is trustees.

Thank you all FROM THE DOGS PAW It was lovely of Noah to invite me to guest post I hope some will check out my little website but I hope more that Noah allows me back again and as I say to my readers stay safe everyone and until next time happy collecting

About the Author:
THIS GUEST BLOG IS DEDICATED TO MY FALLEN COMRADE SCRUFFY LOUISE GOD BLESS HER FOR CHANGING MY LIFE....

E Ashdown curator at Collectibulldogs.

Used by permission of Collectibulldogs

Used by permission of Collectibulldogs

Used by permission of Collectibulldogs