Today has been a busy day at James and Sons, with lots coming in for the July sale, and needing imaging. I have some cracking photos, including one which I have used as a marketing ploy on the Great Centenary Auction facebook and twitter pages, giving people a link to follow to find out how to donate if they are so minded, which I now repeat here: http://bit.ly/1l53uOh. As usual I have some pictures for you…
I had little expectation of a bumper weekend’s photography on Saturday morning, when it was bucketing down with rain and there was no sign of a let up by lunch time (standard British summer day in other words!). But when the weather improved it do so with a vengeance, and Sunday morning was perfect for a long walk in the sun.
With the new camera being so powerful, the tough decisions were over which of my as yet undisplayed pictures I was going to give publicity to. One of these pictures was taken in Norwich on Thursday, but otherwise they are all locations that are within walking distance of central King’s Lynn.
I will have some auction items to show you before too long, and if you have yet to do so please like http://www.facebook.com/GreatAuction and or follow http://www.twitter.com/great_auction
Here are the photos…
The process of imaging lots for the June sale continues. The catalogue has gone to the printers (proof read and corrected by me first), and should be available for distribution by Wednesday at latest. I did a very varied lot of imaging of today, using both scanner and camera. One of my images shows two sheets of stamps of different sizes, which were imaged by different methods. The scanned sheet of stamps were penny rose reds, while the larger photographed sheet were penny red browns.
At this auction I will be running the auction side of my database live for the first time, thus moving a step closer to the time when my system does everything.
Things are starting to move on the social media side of the Great Centenary Auction, with http://www.facebook.com/GreatAuction having over doubled its tally of likes in the last week, and http://www.twitter.com/great_auction steadily increasing its number of followers.
Enjoy some high quality images of stuff that will be going under the hammer at the Maids Head Hotel, Norwich on June 21st…
Everyone at James and Sons was hugely impressed by the new camera, and I got some good pictures with it, as you will see below.
Having spent most of the day taking pictures with the camera I finished with scanning some of the smaller lots.
As usual I have some highlights for you…
I have just spent the entire day imaging at James and Sons, having attended to a large number of lots, including all the coins and all the stamps for the June auction. As a result I have a large number of quality images to share, to the extent that I am holding some of them over until tomorrow.
I have had confirmation that my new camera has arrived, and I will be picking it up from my aunt’s house this evening.
The day began with some very intriguing stuff – three large exhibiting boxes full of ribbons and rosettes, before moving to the slightly more workaday.
Don’t forget – if you are reading this and have not already done so please like http://www.facebook.com/GreatAuction and/ or follow http://www.twitter.com/great_auction.
Yesterday being the first Monday of the month saw a group meeting of the King’s Lynn Asperger Support Society, at which among other things arrangements were made for next month. Every summer we try to hold one group meeting in the open air, and previously it has always been as a “Picnic in the Park”, meeting at the Bandstand near the Broadwalk. The only issue with this spot is that it is rather too far for comfort from decent cover should the weather turn bad very quickly (not unknown in King’s Lynn). Thus at my suggestion we have decided to meet up on the quayside instead and have our meeting overlooking the Great Ouse. There are various outside seating areas along the quayside near the Purfleet, and for the cost of a drink apiece we can take shelter in Marriott’s Warehouse should the weather decline to cooperate.
I came up with this idea for an alfresco meeting at a location where cover was available while taking a long and scenic route to the Lattice House where we had this month’s meeting. I refused to allow the fact that it was spotting with rain when I set off to deflect me, although I did defer to the weather to the extent of donning my bush hat, which has a very broad brim offering almost as good protection against rain as an umbrella without the danger of it being blown inside out. As a result of this little excursion I have some photos, which are the last non-work related photos I will take with this camera. Almost certainly, my work at James and Sons Auctioneers today will require the use of the camera, hence the caveat.
If you are reading this post and have not already done so, please like http://www.facebook.com/GreatAuction and/ or follow http://www.twitter.com/great_auction.
Today started with the discovery that the sword which will be a subject of press releases in the near future was not the one I imaged yesterday for the June sale, but one which I imaged today and which will be going under the hammer in the Great Centenary Auction on September 21st and Raynham Hall. There are signs that Archant having become a sponsor are really getting into gear, with an article, reproduced here, that appeared in yesterday’s Fakenham and Dereham Times. I have already as Great Auction publicly thanked both the publication and the journalist, Chris Hill. If you have not already liked http://www.fgacebook.com/GreatAuction and/or followed http://www.twitter.com/great_auction please do so.
Having taken many images of this old and very ornate sword, and kept those that were good enough to be usable I then finished the stamp imaging from yesterday and did most of the postal history, leaving fifteen lots of that, plus whatever new comes up for Tuesday.
As usual I have a highlights package of images from today for you….
Another interesting and varied day at James and Sons. My first activity of the day was to image and prepare a press release (needs further discussion tomorrow) about an old and very ornate sword that will be in our June auction, at the Maids Head Hotel in Norwich on the 21st. The sword is in a leather scabbard, has a very ornate pommel featuring among other things a crown and a sconce horn and also has some very ornate decoration on the blade. Most of the sword images will be displayed just once on this blog, tomorrow, but I will whet your appetite with one image today.
The other imaging I did today was almost entirely of stamps, which usually come out fairly well, and I have some highlights from there as well.
If you have not already like http://www.facebook.com/GreatAuction and/ or followed http://www.twitter.com/great_auction please do so.
Now for the images…
Yesterday I travelled to Cambridge to take part in some research into Autistic Spectrum Conditions being carried out at the Downing Site. There were two memory tasks, one involving words and phrases and one involving pictures. Around these were fitted questionnaires and pattern recognition tasks, some of which I had encountered before, and at least two of which are near enough universal parts of any research project in Autistic Spectrum Conditions.
Unusually I got my expenses plus ex-gratia payment for taking part in the research in cash rather than having to wait for a cheque to arrive through the post.
After the research had finished I went for a walk round the town, stopping for lunch on the way, and took some interesting photos. The place was absolutely heaving, so I did not get all that many chances to get the kind of photos that interest me, but I did get some interesting stuff.
The building works on King’s Lynn station have finally finished, and it looks good. The station signs are retro style white text on a blue background, of the type that if they are originals sell for a fortune at auction (one from a very minor station went for over £900 at a James and Sons auction not so very long ago).
If you have not already liked http://www.facebook.com/GreatAuction and/ or followed http://www.twitter.co.uk/great_auction, please do so now.
Here are the photos…
Just finished a productive day at James and Sons, imaging for the June sale and also updating my stock database (I am looking to provide a demonstration of what I can do on this part of the database by recording details of all June lots there so I can provide a real time demonstration.) There were some interesting militaria lots, including some Hungarian stuff. I also sent out a press release about our May sale, which took place on Saturday. Although it attracted early interest from other quarters, my advance bid of £20 proved sufficient to secure the postcard reproductions of classic London Underground posters as an early birthday present – the actual price was £18.
Alongside this of course I continue to build up the Social Media profile of the Great Centenary Auction – don’t forget that if you have not already done so you should be liking http://www.facebook.com/GreatAuction and/or following http://www.twitter.com/great_auction.
As usual I am taking this opportunity to show you some highlights from today’s work…
aspiblog 