Month: April 2014

The images for the April sale are all done, the queries are all resolved, and I have been able to spend most of the day working on the database. Hopefully I will be able to concentrate fully on database work on Thursday and Friday of next week, after the auction.

I did not do much imaging today (only a handful of lots that had slipped through), so in addition to the two blogworthy images I did produce I am also providing a series of images to demonstrate the assembling of one very large image at the end as well…

 

The imaging for James and Sons April sale is finally complete (It took me until 3 O’clock this afternoon to finish off the last bits), and although there will be some heavy work loading and unloading the van and laying out auction lots (I have been given responsibility for setting out the book lots to best advantage – big surprise!), I may finally get time to do some database work, for the first time in a while.

As well as the last lots of Liebig Company picture cards, following on from several thousand older cigarette cards, there was some interesting ephemera in todays lots.

Bad light spoiled a classic finish between Lancashire and Warwickshire yesterday, meaning that save for Yorkshire’s thumping of Northampt0nshire every game in this round of championship matches was drawn. When the light dipped below the critical level Warwickshire needed 25 with five overs remaining and five wickets still standing – all four results possible although a tie or a Lancashire win would have had generous odds at that stage.

As usual I have some pictures…

 

I enjoyed my Easter weekend. Although I did not catch much of this year’s Classic FM Hall of Fame, I was able to listen to the last couple of hours, and was pleased to see that the Rachmaninov Piano concerto no 2 did not stay at number one. Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending regained the top spot. A full listing of the 300 pieces that make up the Hall of Fame will be available on the Classic FM website.

Judging from the scores I saw on cricinfo yesterda, near the end of the third day, the current round of county championship matches has been badly hit by the weather.

The massive backlog of imaging for the April auction is nearly cleared, so I hope to get some time to do some work on the Database on Thursday and Friday, and possibly on Tuesday before starting to move stuff for the auction.

As usual I have some pictures for you…

Yes folks today is precisely one year since I started at James and Sons. With my database system set to attempt to handle its first live auction soon, my roles as imager, email text creator and press release producer also all going swimmingly I have every reason to regard my first year in the job as a success.

Of course, the biggest development involving James and Sons in recent times is the Great Centenary Charity Auction commemorating 100 years since the WWI and raising funds for blast injury victims.

I rarely say much about religious matters in this blog since I am entirely irreligious myself and generally have other things to concern myself with, but I was a trifle frustrated after a hard day’s work to find my journey to King’s Lynn delayed for half an hour because of the Walsingham pilgrims.

I have some good images for you as usual…

Havup to the casng attended a routine eye test on Wednesday morning I will be picking up a new pair of spectacles on Thursday morning. Because I am now off Jobseekers Allowance and do not receive any other benefit that qualifies me for free treatment/ frames I have had to pay the full cost. Officially my eye test cost £20, the frames £45 and an extra anti-reflective layer because of my computer work £30, unofficially I have forked over £95 for a new pair of spectacles.

I managed to do some work on the database yesterday, but today will probably be all imaging, as there is a fair bit to do, and it needs to be done today.

A lively meeting last night (on the economy) – yes I am in Norwich -, and it looks like being a pleasant walk into town and up to the castle to catch the bus. I am working later hours than normal today because Norfolk Green are running a Sunday service.

As usual I have some pictures for you…

Yesterday I attended a launch party for a series of charity auctions commemorating WWI and raising funds for the Royal British Legion. This was held at Raynham Hall, seat of the Marquess and Marchioness of Townshend.

It went off extremely well, and so thought David James who will be running the auctions themselves (hence how a member of the hoi polloi like yours truly had an invite). Though  I do not possess a full suit, smart trousers, a previously unworn smart shirt, a red silk tie and my smartest jacket were sufficient to pass muster.

It was a delightful event and as you will see (there are a lot of images at the end of this post), the surroundings were really quite special.

Today I worked mainly on the database, but I also dealt with some high quality militaria…

Although I got to do a tiny amount of database work at the end of the day, today was mostly taken up with imaging as I had expected.

There were some interesting items in there, as the pictures I include below demonstrate…

I spent all of today imaging, principally lots for the April main sale, but also turning a brochure cover into a poster for David.

I also picked up the stuff (lots 1866 and 1885) from the Timed Bid sale that concluded late on Tuesday that my mother and I had bid successfully on (The invoices are on my desk to remind me to settle up with Kirsty tomorrow).

I hope to get some work done on the database tomorrow, but imaging has to take priority with the catalogue due to be sent to the printers on Monday.

There were some very interesting items to be imaged today and I have some good pictures for you…

 

I decided to make yesterday I proper day out in Cambridge, so got the 10:56 in order to give myself some time for a look around the town. It was unfortunate that I had five teenage boys sitting close to me and making a nuisance of themselves for the entire journey. I spent some time walking around Cambridge including going down to the banks of the Cam.

I decided that since I would be eating outside anyway on a day like that, and lunch marked the switch of my attentions from “Town” to “Gown” that Parkers Piece was the appropriate venue for consuming my sandwiches. Sadly, in spite of the excellent weather, no cricket of any type was being played, while some folk  were kicking footballs about, an act of desecration given that this patch of land was where both Tom Hayward and Jack Hobbs learned to bat, and also where on a casual day out K S Ranjitsinhji got roped into three different games of cricket and made centuries in all three.

The visit to the Herchel Smith building went smoothly enough, and at the end I was able to make the business of paying travel expenses quite straight forward because I had taken the precaution of getting a receipt with my train ticket which I could give to them, so a cheque will be put in the post for me.

The train journey back was another less than satisfactory one, as having stood from Cambridge to Waterbeach, the only seat I could then get was next to three noisy kids.

Just the one picture this time, as I did not take any in Cambridge…

After a morning spent working on the database, I switched tasks to imaging items for the April main sale, some of which were interesting.

I will make sure that I get all the remaining April imaging done by the end of this week, check everything against the descriptions, and will hope in the last couple of weeks before the auction (on 30th), I can concentrate purely on database work so as to make sure that the new system is really ready to go live.

Here are the pick of the images from today…