Those of you who have read my post about James and Sons’ First Ever Three Day Auction will recall that after missing out on lot 141 I was successful on lot 789 on day 2. I have now been through the boxful of cards and the remainder of this post will outline what I found.
WHAT EVERYONE SAW
The description read “Locomotives – quantity in OXO tin, mostly VG to EX. The official images were:
The whole item.Close focus on some of the cards.
THE FULL ANALYSIS
The total range of locomotives covered by this series of cards is only 24, there are 147 individual cards in the tin, plus a stray cigarette card that slipped in there. I am not complaining about duplicates because the circumstances in which these cards were issued makes each one unique, even though many display the same .locomotives.
THE LONDON PASSENGER TRANSPORT BOARD (LPTB)
There was only one of their locomotives in the collection, and it appears six times. The remaining images are shown in ’tiled mosaic’ form – click on individual pic to view at full size.
THE GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY (GWR)
Five different samples of rolling stock, and a total of 27 cards, constituted as follows: Lulworth Castle x 6, Diesel Car x 7, County of Middlesex x 6, King George V x 3, Garth Hall x 5.
SOUTHERN RAILWAY (SR)
Not to be confused with todays #SouthernFail, this set featured six locomotives and a total of 30 cards, constituted as follows:
London-Paris Boat Train x 1, Q Class Goods Locomotive x 8, Lord Nelson x 3, West Country Class “Bude” x 3, Merchant Navy Class “Channel Packet” x 7, Schools Class “Radley” x 8.
LONDON, MIDLAND & SCOTTISH (LMS)
Six locomotives featured, 39 cards in total, constituted as follows: The Glasgow Highlander x 8, The Duchess of Sutherland x 6, The City of Birmingham x 7, Royal Scots Fusilier x 8, City of Edinburgh x 6, JP Class Turbine Locomotive x 4.
THE LONDON AND NORTH EASTERN RAILWAY (LNER)
Six locomotives featured for this railway, accounting for 45 cards, constituted as follows: B Class “Roederer” x 9, LI Class no 9000 x 6, Mixed Traffic Electric Locomotive x 7, Edward Thompson x 10, A4 Class Mallard x 7, Beyer-Garratt Locomotive no 9999 x 6.
THE STRAY
The black sheep of my newly acquired collection is no 42 in a 48 card series of Army Badge cigarette cards:
CONCLUSION
This is a very intriguing collection of cards, and a most worthy addition to my collection of railwayana. Here is one final image showing the collection in its box post sorting:
An illustrated account of James and Sons’ first three day auction.
INTRODUCTION
On Monday, Tuesday and Yesterday my employers staged their first ever three-day auction, all three days of the sale taking place at our shop in Fakenham. This post describes the event.
DAY 1: COINS, BANKNOTES, BANKING EPHEMERA AND MILITARIA
There were a few technical issues early on, and we had to dispense with the live video because it just would not work. However, with close to 200 online bidders (this tally rose past 300 before the end of the auction on Wednesday) signed up before the sale started and a few people there in person it was not long before good things started happening. The first and biggest headline maker was…
LOT 22
This 1863 penny caused an internet dominated bidding battle which finally stopped at £1,200 (the estimate had been £250-300, and the bidding had started around that level). The successful bidder then telephoned in to clarify whether he could return the item if it turned out not to be as expected. This led to a tricky photographic assignment for yours truly. Looking at the pictures below can you see what is unusual about the dating on thkis coin?
I took a photo of the whole coin (for this I needed a larger image than I could get by scanning), and produced from that two full face pictures and two pictures focussing only the date.
THE REST OF THE COINS
Although nothing else approached lot 22 the coins did continue to sell fairly well. I will feature one more lot, which although it did not reach great heights was contested…
LOT 141
This was a Lima Tramways Inauguration token. Two people were interested, myself and an internet bidder. When the online bidder went to £20 over my £18 I conceded defeat (I had decided that I was not going beyond £20 and adhered to that decision). In addition to the obvious public transport connection, there is also a more obscure and tenuous cricket related connection: Lima was also the birthplace of Freddie Brown, who went on Jardine’s 1932-33 ashes tour without being picked for a test match and captained the touring party for the 1950-51 ashes. Here is the image gallery for this lot to commemorate my near miss:
The main image for this lot consists of two 600dpi scans (one of each face) joined together.I also keep the individual images so that interested parties can look at each individual face if they so desire.
THE BANKNOTES AND BANKING EPHEMERA
The banknotes fared well, while the experiment with banking ephemera (mainly but not entirely cheques) cannot yet be judged – more of the stuff will be going under the hammer at our next auction.
MILITARIA
The militaria was again largely successful. In a pattern of consistent successes there was one stand out, early in the section. The star of this second half of day one was…
LOT 309
This lot, a Free Polish Airforce pilots badge and RAF Dingley escape whistle with an estimate of £80-95 eventually sold for £320.
FINISHING THE FIRST DAY
After the end of the first day at lot 550 the stuff for that part of the sale had to be moved upstairs and the stuff for day two brought down into the shop. My involvement in this process and the fact the we had finished later than expected meant that I did not get any imaging done before going home.
INTERLUDE – ON IMAGING
This post has featured scanning and photography, so here is a brief guide to myt appraoch to imaging at work:
I scan the following items:
Coins – 600dpi, scan each face, brighten the images (this both improves the clarity of the image, and since I have also adopted the policy of using a white background, effectively eliminates the background) and join the two images together to create the master image). I can image up 20 single coin lots at a time in this way, and the scanner I use works fast even at high resolution.
Stamps – 300-400dpi according to the level of intricacy of the pattern. Small stamps usually have an automatic black background because of the holders that are used. Usually I image these lots four at a time, but occasionally if the stamps are particularly suitably placed in the holders I can do more.
Postcards – 200-300 dpi according to time considerations. When there has been a real hurry on I have got away with scanning postcards at 150dpi, but I do not recommend going this low. The bed of my scanner is big enough for four standard size postcards, and in general if I have more cards than that in a lot I photograph rather than scanning.
Banknotes and related items – 200dpi is usually right for these.
Small ephemera: Any printed item that is A4 or less in size can be scanned. These items can be done at 150dpi.
All items not in the above list are photographed, and for items in the above list the decision to scan is dependent on small size – I do not for example lay out the contents of a huge box of coins on the scanner bed and scan.
DAY 2: POSTCARDS, EPHEMERA, FILM POSTERS, CIGARETTE & LIEBIG CARDS
A slightly fractious start to the day, as it was still not possible to run the video. Also, due to the confusion caused by frantic attempts to find a way to run the video the first couple of lots went under the hammer without audio either.
THE POSTCARDS
There was no danger of any of these not selling because one of our regulars had left a block of bids on all of them, and some ended up going to other people.
EPHEMERA AND FILM POSTERS
These as might be expected were fairly quiet, although even they did not completely bomb – some decorated menus sold reasonably well.
THE CIGARETTE AND LIEBIG CARDS
The big news from these lots was that the majority actually sold. Near the end there was a very minor controversy concerning…
LOT 789
This was the second and last lot ion the catalogue that was of personal interest to me. I opened the bidding at £16, and as I as recording this information an internet bit for the same amount registered. James and Sons policy on the matter is clear – a room bid has privilege over an internet bid. I thus pressed the ‘room’ button on the console to disallow the internet bid. The item was then knocked down at £16. Just in case the unlucky internet bidder is reading this, they would have had to go to £22 to get the item, since I was adhering to the same policy that I had adopted with regard to lot 141 – I was prepared to go to but not beyond £20. As a further point please note that had I secured lot 141 I would not have bid on this item. When I have been through it in detail I will produce a full post about this item, but for the moment here are the official images:
The whole item.Close focus on some of the cards.
THE SWAP OVER
The moving of items so that the setup was ready for day 3 was swiftly accomplished, and having done fewer lots and the auction having run more smoothly there was plenty of time for me to finish the day with some…
FEBRUARY IMAGING
The February auction will be another three day affair, but with an extra twist – days 1 and 2 will be at the shop again, but day 3 (A Wednesday again) will be at The Maids Head Hotel in Norwich. Here are some of the images I produced on Tuesday afternoon…
Please do not draw any conclusions from the fact that I have included images of third Reich coins in this post!
DAY 3: STAMPS, FIRST DAY COVERS AND POSTAL HISTORY
The day started with a wait outside the shop as the colleague who was opening up was delayed, continued with a quick trip to get a replacement strip bulb because one was shining a very ugly shade of pink but the setupo went smoothly, and the auction proceeded with no problems. These lots were not expected to generate bidding fireworks, but a reasonable number of them did actually sell.
There was no immediate need to transfer the stuff, so I was able to do other work, starting with…
SOME HIGH VALUE FEBRUARY IMAGING
These needed to be done first as some would be featuring in the print catalogue…
This is about the biggest coin lot that could be sensibly scanned.
I departed from usual policy with banknotes and scanned this one at 600 dpi because it is a very rare item.
After lunch and a quick trip to the stationer for a box of paper I did some more ordinary imaging…
A repeat of my earlier disclaimer re images of stuff from the third Reich.
This whole set of 25 lots of Liebig cards had to be imaged – I have selected a range rather than sharing all 25.
CONCLUSION
James and Sons’ first three day auction was definitely a success. The use of the shop as a venue massively reduces overhead costs, and the fact that we can only seat a few people there is no great disadvantage. February’s auction, on the 20th and 21st at the shop and then the 22nd at the Maids Head Hotel, Norwich will provide an interesting comparison. I end this post with some pictures of the layout on the first two days of the January auction (day 3 did not warrant a picture):
Most of the lots were laid on or under this tableThe small, high valued stuff such as coins was in this display cabinet.Day 2, followed by a couple of close ups (day three was not worth photographing).
A victory for disability rights (brought to you by Welfare Weekly and DWP Examination by way of the Guardian)…
Bus drivers must now pressure passengers to make room in ruling described by Doug Paulley as ‘significant cultural change’. This article titled “Disability groups hail court’s support for wheelchai…
Two pictures which book end my working day today – enjoy!
INTRODUCTION
I am just back from day two of a three day auction being held by employers (look out for a full post on Thursday sometime) and just to keep things rolling am sharing a couple of pictures from opposite ends of the day.
MORNING MOON
As I was walking from the bus stop at Oak Street in Fakenham to my workplace on Norwich Street I saw an impressive looking moon in what was by then a day time sky. After some editing to bring out the finest points of said moon this was the result:
EVENING SUN
On the bus back I saw an incredible looking sunset which I tried to capture through the window. In real life it was much redder than the picture looks…
It’s spreading. The fbpage Save Trosa nature or in Swedish Utveckla Trosa utan förbifart has shared the Where eagles fly post. If you have the time and wants to support the Save Trosa nature movement, please atop by the fb page and leave a like and/or a supporting comment.
I’m not on fb, but maybe you are. I give the the fb post a like in this way instead.
Naturskyddsföreningen får stöd av hundratalet boende på Tureholmshalvön
Naturskyddsföreningens begäran till Länsstyrelsen att ompröva beslutet om att inte göra någon miljökonsekvensbeskrivning för projekt Infart Västra Trosa får nu stöd av 132 boende och två föreningar på Tureholmshalvön Gillbergsvik/Käftudden, som insänt en skrivelse till Länsstyrelsen.
Exploateringen av Tureholmshalvön och Västra Trosa är numera en förutsättning för att vägen ska byggas enligt kommunens finansieringsbeslut.
Tureholmshalvön håller höga naturvärden med flertalet rödlistade arter, däribland havsörnarna som kommunen använder i sin reklam. Deras livsmiljö hotas nu av den exploatering kommunen och halvöns största markägare har tänkt sig genomföra.
Exploateringsplanerna strider mot gällande praxis för artskyddet. En miljökonsekvensbeskrivning bör göras och omfatta även de exploateringsområden som nu är ihopkopplade med vägprojektet.
Här kan ni läsa skrivelsen i sin helhet (engelsk version kommer efter den svenska texten)
From Heather Hastie’s blog comes an amazing video…
I regularly post the time lapse films by Martin Heck of TimeStorm films, but somehow I missed this one. He released it back it December 2015 after a trip to Norway, and, as always it’s stunning. Heck describes the filming thus: Norway 8K shows the wild landscapes of Norway in ultra high resolution. From the […]
Sea Eagle at Käftudden Trosa 
aspiblog 