Recently, during the visit of Ruben Cammarata, his wife Pilar and myself to Sicily, to attend the meeting organized by Giuseppe Savocca, event of which I wrote a short article for the Club, I had the great pleasure to meet David Maund and his wife Lynne.
Immediately we saw each other with great sympathy, as we shared (apart from our enthusiasm for the minis) something which was our working relationship with the insurance world, he as Lloyd’s Broker in Southampton and me, as Underwriting Manager of the Marine Business in a German multinational.
The next day, and during the phase of “trading” I had the opportunity to acquire various pieces at very good prices, not because I would fall more or less sympathetic, but simply because he was aware that in some extent, the crisis also affects our collective, and that Lynne had said she was not willing to re-pack everything they had brought to the meeting. For me, apart from the interest of the pieces I bought from him, now I have the added value of his memories.
Together we also had the opportunity to see the collection of Giuseppe and do a few laughs and a few pictures together.
The month of August started for me so sad, as the 9th, Saturday, my mother passed away in Elche and just when I was enjoying a short holiday after the tragic event, I got an email from my good friend David Spaid, where I was noticed of this, sudden and unexpected death too.
With him it disappears one of the greatest English collectors, that will certainly be in these moments chatting of his passion with our dear and remembered good friend Derman Villegas, wherever both are now.
Luis Campos Serna
AN APPRECIATION
There was a twinkle in his eye and then his cheeks would redden and then David Maund would laugh. You couldn’t be in his presence very long without laughing because he was just simply a delightful man. Now, my friend and a good friend to many others of you is gone and we’ll all be a bit worse for it. After four weeks in the hospital in Southampton, England, he passed away on Thursday, August 21st.
I first met David and his family (his wife Lynne and their two now grown children, Simon and Karen) back in about 1980. Being a scotch whisky collector, David was working on getting approval for his 1981 Royal Wedding mini bottles. Approval came but the contract with duty free did not, so David became his own liquor salesman. There were several hundred cases of bottles to be sold…and they were. Just try to find one now.
Since he got to know so many collectors, and he saw how the clubs worked here in the U.S., he became the first and only President of the UK Mini Bottle Club. The club is now in its 35th year and we know how much he will be missed in that group.
On his trips to the U.S. for bottle shows, it became a standing joke that if David was coming to the show, something would go wrong. Suitcases loaded with bottles would disappear, the plane would be diverted to Texas, and my favorite, the U.K. driver’s license fiasco. It seems that English licenses do not have the person’s photo on them. Well, how do you prove you are who you say you are when you’re in the U.S. with only a license as your passports are in your luggage which has gone to a different city? David could and did talk his way out of many a sticky situation. And that brings us back full circle to him making you laugh. Many of these situations were Keystone Kops scenarios, but they all ended happily.
To have known David enriched my life and England for me just won’t be the same without him.
David Spaid