An annoucnement that the catalogue for our June 29th auction is now ready for viewing. Please share widely.
INTRODUCTION
The catalogue for James and Sons’ auction on June 29th is now ready – it is back from the printers, and today was devoted to plugging the last gaps image-wise in the online version, which can be viewed by clicking here.
FILLING THE GAPS
Most of the gaps were due to images not being uploaded, but once these had been attended to, some items remained to be imaged, the bulk of them coins. Here to clear the decks are the non-coin items that I had to image today…
This was to field a request for extra detail rather than an image that had not been done.
Lot 460
The two supplementary images I produced for lot 460 were in response to a query.
Lot 627
Lot 742
The coins that needed doing were a run of 19 lots, all bar one of which could be scanned (396-414 incl), and one extra lot (416)…
Each of these coin lots has three images minimum (a composite and two individuals)
This one has an extra image – a close up of the date.
A brief and mainly, indeed almost entirely, pictorial account of my day at work.
INTRODCUTION
Today we were getting the catalogue for the auction on June 29th ready to go to the printers, which meant a lot of imaging for me.
A WIDE RANGE OF IMAGES
My days imaging started with some cigarette/ trade card lots…
These look like old coins but they are actually well disguised cigarette cards based on those coins.
Next up came some left over coin and stamp lots…
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Then there were a few small flags…
Then came 28 vinyl records, some of which are likely to fetch serious money…
Lot 751, first of the records in this sale
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Although I restricted myself to showing 10 of the 28 records this one had to be included.
Lot 778, the last of the records.
Once the records were done, there was a stereograph and some accompanying slides, which occupied 20 odd lots between them…
The Stereograph
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When viewed through the stereograph you get a single picture in 3D
The stereograph was followed by a handful of toys…
The last items of the day were two highly decorated, framed title pages of atlases, for which I provide complete image galleries, all as individual images…
An account of today at work and yesterday at Musical keys.
INTRODUCTION
This post has two very disparate strands – yesterday’s Musical Keys event for Autistic People and tody at work.
IMAGING
While I have imaged a wide variety of stuff today at work I am going to concentrate on some commemorative coin lots that were of particular quality…
I did not have time to provide close-ups of all these coins……so I selected the one featuring a picture of Nelson (we are in Norfolk after all) for the treatmnent.
This lot featured an extra requirement.Namely providing a shot focussing on the coin and info sheet into which it is set.
The last of the commemorative coins.
A large collection of themed stamp books.
Inidvidual mounted stampsA close up of a single setan even close up of two individual stamps.
Old maps…
… and an even older map to finish
MUSICAL KEYS
The 12 years and older session of the Musical Keys workshop run as an NAS West Norfolk activity started at 4:45PM yesterday and ran until 6:15PM. I was there both as participant and as one 0f the two designated committee members to be present at the event (the other was group leader Karan whose younger son was participating). As usual with Musical Keys the main piece of equipment we were using was a miniature computer:
For the first part of the session we were playing computer drums:
After a mid-session break during which a birthday cake which Karan had very kindly made (gluten-free as her son has an adverse reaction to gluten) and which was absolutely delicious, we moved on to the second part of the session, which featured a system whereby lines had to be drawn across the screen so that balls would bounce of them to create sounds. For those of my generation it looks a bit like a very early BBC Micro game!
The basic set up
An arrangement of lines which prevents any of the balls (released from the nozzle you can see top centre) from escaping. I do not know what kind of sound this generates, as at no time while the sound was on did I have this many lines in place.
As anyone who knows what the weather was like in King’s Lynn yesterday early evening will be aware it was not suitable for photography on the way to the Scout Hut, where as so often with NAS West Norfolk events this took place, but I did get this picture on the way home…
Details of four significant press releases that I have put out recently.
INTRODUCTION
This post covers one particular qaspect of my work at James and Sons. Everything yousee has gone out between Thursday of last week and this morning.
PRESS RELEASES
I am sharing four of these with you:
MILITARY BADGE AUCTION ALERT
This one is about our upcoming auctions on Wednesday and Thursday, the first of which contains a few military badges, including both of those used in the image, and the second of which, taking place at our own premises, is a pure badge auction. I will provide the images, a jpg of the full document and a link to the original word document:
For various reasons instead of a dedicated auction devoted entirely to fund-raising we are incorporating the Great Centenary Charity Auction within our own programme, with lots in June and November being sold for fund-raising purposes. I have put out two press releases thus far about this:
WHERE MILITARIA AND SCOUTING COMBINE
The first press release focuses on a collection of medals and paperwork relating to Jack Cornwell, who at the battle of Jutland became the youngest person ever to win the VC. He was also a boy scout, giving an extra connection. I have a jpg of the press release, the press release itself and all the images I took of the various items:
The second Great Centenary Charity Auction press release is about an oil painting of the Poppies at the Tower by one of the two artists who created the real thing…
An account with links to the three source pieces of the vile abuse of Chris Packham by the pro-hunting lobby and his dignified response to it.
INTRODUCTION
I live with Asperger’s Syndrome, have previously had mental health issues including depression and am a nature lover. Chris Packham presents nature programs on TV, has Asperger’s Syndrome and has had mental health problems. Mr Packham has recently gone public about his Asperger’s and depression, and this is where the story starts…
A TWEET AND RETWEET
Yesterday morning Hunting Solutions put out the following tweet, quoted in his own piece immediately after it had happened by Miles King on anewnatureblog:
This tweet was retweeted by Nicholas Soames, a politician whose own party leader has spoken of the need to end the stigma attached to mental health. As Miles King points out, given the hysterical reaction to Naz Shah having liked an offensive facebook post before she became an MP, you might think that this could cause more trouble for the party concerned. When Miles King challenged Soames about the retweet, rather than attempting to defend himself Soames blocked King. Please follow the link I provided near the top of this section and read that post in full before proceeding.
PACKHAM’S OWN RESPONSE
Chris Packham provided what was in the circumstances a remarkably restrained response in the form of an interview that was published on Huffington Post, which I urge you to read in full.
THE FOLLOW UP THIS MORNING
Miles King on anewnatureblog returned to the fray this morning because Hunting Solutions had provided a response of sorts. As this image, taken from the Miles King piece, which I urge to read in full shows it was exactly what we might expect from these people:
This is classic victim blaming of the sort that Tories specialize in. I will conclude this section with my own comments on Miles King’s posts which I once more urge you to read in full:
As someone with Asperger’s Syndrome and who has experience of depression I am in no doubt that the both the original tweet and Soames’ retweet were bang out of order, and in the continuing absence of an apology there is no doubt to give these people the benefit of. The use of the word “nutjob” in the context Mr Packham having recently gone public about his Asperger’s and depression is reminiscent of the the prolonged series of smears that functioned (thankfully and deservedly very badly) as Zac Goldsmith’s London Mayoral campaign.
And Miles’ response to that comment:
thanks Thomas – a good analogy. The hunting community, feeling threatened, are resorting to a smear campaign against high profile people like Chris Packham.
My comment on the second post:
Excellent follow up piece. I would take your reasoning re the comments about foxhunting being psychopathic a small step further and say that for true equivalence between the remarks Packham would have to labelled not just foxhunters as a group (which as you point out he did not) but an individual named foxhunter as a psychopath. As for the ‘if he hadn’t criticised us we would not have said it’ “defense”, that is simply another example of a favourite tactic of these kind of people – victim blaming.
I conclude this post with some photos…
An eight-legged friend
I noticed something about this £1 coin that caused me to examine it closely – just as well I did, as it is Gibraltarian and would probably not have been accepted by the bus driver!Close up of the reverseClose up of the obverse
Yesterday and today were both work days for me, and I stayed overnight in Norwich as I was attending an evening meeting in that fine city. I will not be covering said meeting in this post as I plan to write about it and about tomorrow’s protest against the possible closure of the Fermoy Unit in detail in another post. All my images today are presented as ’tiled mosaics’ – to view an individual image at full size click on it.
THURSDAY
Thursday was all imaging for the May auction. I finished the militaria imaging before moving on to some other stuff. Here a few highlights from these lots…
After the militaria I dealt with the coin lots that were unsuitable for being scanned…
These last two lots (three images each) are ex-coins that have been turned into jewellery.
There was then a mixture of items to finish the day…
Lot 275
Lot 392
Lot 397 – an item of local interest.
FRIDAY
Some of the last lots in theApril auction(this Wednesday in Norwich) were located, and there was some interesting stuff for the May auction to image as well. I start with some of those April lots…
This scrapbook is lot 714 – it has some Norfolk interest because the girl who assembled it back in the Victorian age lived in Trunch.
Lot 730 – four very miniature books in a plastic case
Lot 726 (two images for this one)
Lot 717 – an interesting old picture. One of Susanna Gregory’s Chaloner novels features London Bridge, and Edward Marston’s Elizabethan book-holder Nick Bracewell almost certainly finds himself on this birdge at some stage in his adventures.
Lot 725
Now for some of the lots for the May auction that I imaged today…
An account of today at James and Sons, featuring the construction of a press release, a bonus explanation of the origin of the phrase ‘bent as a nine-bob note’, and at the end a couple of important links.
INTRODUCTION
I have some old images to share, some new images to share, and a press release to talk about. Additionally I have a couple of important links that I will be sharing at the end of this post.
THE CREATION OF A PRESS RELEASE
There are several stages involved in creating press releases/ bulk emails. Stage 1 is working out what to cover, which in this case involved two aspects:
The success of the March 30th and 31st auction, with large numbers of internet bidders, and…
Each of the foregoing for maximum effect needed to be accompanied by an appropriate image. Hence:
IMAGE SELECTION
For the March image I was looking for something that had sold for well above estimate, and would look good in an email. Thus my attention focussed on lot 720, which I recalled as being both interesting visually and spectacularly successful in the auction room. Thus I needed to view the full image gallery and select from within that…
This full image is too busy for use in an email
This image showing the coins and ingot in their natural alignment looked good
I could have used this but decided against it
The obverses on their own are not very interesting – it is the reverses that are distinctive
It was close a call for this one.
The ingot on it’s own could not be used, but there were possibilities involving it…
I decided, given the shape of image I was looking for to combine the shot of the four coins and the ingot and the close-up of the ingot into a composite image (I considered the four reverses on their own, but wanted both parts of the image to have the same colour background).
The composite I created for the occasion.
For the image to accompany the text advertising the April auction the task was easier – I went for the front cover item for very obvious reasons.
Incidentally the above denomination of banknote provides the origin for the phrase “bent as a nine-bob note” – ‘bob’ was a colloquialism for a shilling, and as shown above, a ‘ten-bob’ note was kosher while a ‘nine-bob note’ would absolutely not have been.
ASSEMBLING A MAILING LIST
Coming up with the text for the press release is a straight-forward task, and assembling a mailing list is a simple matter of noting which categories of items are prominent in the upcoming auction, selecting the appropriate lists from the database and combining them into one big list. In this instance there were almost 400 names on the final list. As a security measure (and a guard against people hitting the ‘reply to all’ button) I am the designated recipient of the emails (my James and Sons email address, not my personal one) and the true recipients are bcc’d. Thus, given that our system can handle approximately 100 people being bcc’d at a time, this one involved sending the email four times.
THE FINAL PRESS RELEASE
I have a jpg of the final press release, and also a link that will enable you to view the document in its original word format.
In addition to the above, some work on the database and some fetching and carrying there were also a few items that had been catalogued but had not previously been in our possession so still needed imaging…
This ‘claymore’ type sword is an absolute monster – stood vertically it reaches my shoulder!
Finally, to end this post on an upbeat note, a story from the New Statesmanby way of Prides Purgeabout how badly the Tory campaign for London Mayor has come off the rails(attentive followers of this blog and my London transport themed website, www.londontu.be, will know that if I had a vote in that election I would be using it on Sian Berry’s behalf, but whoever ends up benefitting – most likely Sadiq Khan – bad news for Tories is good news for me!)
An account of James and Sons auction on March 3oth and 31st, with some other stuff at the end.
INTRODUCTION
As the main part of this post, about James and Sons’March auction (I am also sharing a few other bits at the end) develops it will become obvious why I am doing it now as one big post, and why I have posted very little these last few days.
PART 1: THE PRELIMINARIES (TUESDAY)
With the auction scheduled for Wednesday 30th (lots 1-699) and Thursday 31st (Lots 700-1051) the setup at the venue (The Prince of Wales Suite, Fakenham Racecourse) had to be accomplished on the Tuesday. This day did not require any earlier start than a regular work day would, and although a lot of heavy lifting was involved (a thousand plus lot auction, four people fit to do serious carrying) it was less draining than the other two days.
PART TWO: DAY 1 (WEDNESDAY)
I had to be at the venue by 8AM, which meant leaving my flat at 6:30AM to be sure of catching the 6:50 bus, to make sure that the IT setup was working and to assist with the viewing the precedes the sale. A couple of technical hitches at the start aside the day went smoothly. There were some great successes, although the flag that we had hoped would raise serious money did not attract a bid high enough to warrant selling it. The books tanked, as anyone with any experience of books at auction would have expected. Lot 466 fell to me, and lot 494, five volumes on Buildings of Scotland, found its way to East Rudham. Here are some pictures from day 1 at the venue…
This was still in the sky when I left my flat on the Wednesday morning!
Not one of ours – one the racecourse’s own pictures)
The view from the rostrum
The rostrum before the auction started.
This shell has been interestingly decorated, although it would still have looked better when it was on a turtle’s back.
The flag
A building frontage in Bridge Street, Fakenham that I had not previously noticed.
After the sale had concluded it was time to get the unsold lots from day 1 back to the shop (and they had to go on the top floor of the shop, including four plastic tubs full of back issues of Private Eye magazine). Then finally, work was done for the day.
PART THREE: DAY 2 (THURSDAY)
Fortunately I was able to set off an hour later than on the first day as although I would still have to do some preliminary IT stuff there were unlikely to be many viewers present (and indeed there weren’t). The internet was still very lively however, and a number of the early commemorative and proof coins on this second day sold exceptionally well. The stamps and postal history did not shine especially brightly. Lot 920, an Isambard Kingdom Brunel £2 set, went to me. The last lot went under the hammer just before 12:00, after which it was time for the clear-up. Once we had the first van load back at the shop we stopped for lunch, before doing the unloading, heading back to the racecourse for the last bits and getting them back. At this point there was a break from heavy lifting, during which I obtained a full printed list of those who had signed up to bid via http://www.the-saleroom.com, which ran to a James and Sons record 277 (paddle numbers 400-676 inclusive). There was a little bit more lifting to do before the end of my day, as it was necessary to get some stuff ready for loading for a collectors fair on the morrow. I have some pictures from day 2 as well…
One of theirs again!
This tapestry is also theirs.
Caravans parked where on race days there would be bookies.
Golfers in action, srrounded by the racecourse (hence no golf on racedays – a mishit shot might do more than frighten the horses!)
Che Simnor auditioning for the role of security guard!
An item on display in the shop.
The Fakenham Sign
A FINAL THOUGHT ON THE AUCTION
I have not previously been involved in running a two-day auction, and it was an incredibly tiring three days. However, the auction was very successful.
LOTS 466 AND 920
These were the two lots I bid on, and I got both. Both lots attracted my attention because of my special interest (in the best autism circles we do not use the word obsession) in railways (and indeed public transport generally – check out my website www.londontu.be).
LOT 466
This was a rail atlas of Britain, dating from around 1980 (Blake Hall station was open so it is pre-1982, but that whole section of the Central line – Epping– Ongar – was already being considered for closure), and it is very detailed, showing goods and passenger lines. Here are pictures, starting with the images that were available at auction and finishing with some later shots…
This was the image that people saw during the auction – the front coverThe three images starting with this one were also available to internet viewers.
A picture showing the Ongar page – and note where the Chelmsford oage continues to…The page from which this picture comes…A new post in ‘stations’ on my website will be coming soon.A joint pic of the images from pps 32 and 33 showing that the downright dishonourable “costs a Priti penny” Patel has nothing approaching a justification for claiming more in expenses than any other MP in the house – her constituency is hardly far-flung!
LOT 920
This was the Brunel £2 set, and I have the image that was available to auction followers, some images taken of it on display at the venue and some further images taken of it at home…
This image was one of the few at this auction not done me, hence the rookie mistake of showing an ‘obverse’ (just a portrait of a ridiculously over-privileged old woman), when the ‘reverse’ is the key face.On display at the auctionOne of the reverses (still at the auction)A picture taken at my workstation back at the shopThe outside of the folderThe two obverses.This one, showing both reverses and the accompanying info is an example of what the auction image should have looked like.A close up of the ‘reverse’ showing Brunel in his top hata close-up of the other ‘reverse’, a pattern based on Paddington station
What the folder looks like closed.
HAIRPIN POINT – UNINTENTIONAL COMEDY FROM THE GOP
I have called this ‘Hairpin Point’ because it represents a switch in direction on this post away from anything connected with my work to other matters. To set the scene, here is a screen-dump from my email inbox:
The Gun Obsessed Plonkers (GOP for short) have made a spectacular blunder here:
As my email address surely indicates (it ends .co.uk after all) I am not American.
Even I was American the odds against me ever even voting for a Republican, let alone being a registered member would be of the order of zillions to one against.
How someone came to perpetrate a bloomer on this scale I do not know, but it did provide a laugh.
And at the very end, a link to a piece by Mike Sivier of Vox Political about what Labour is doing to attempt to save British Steel, and a follow-up link to a petition on the same subject that has already garnered more than the 100,000 signatures needed for a debate in Parliament:
A mention of the fact that our catalogue is now available in print and some of today’s best images.
INTRODUCTION
Two days ago I put up a post about James and Sons March auction, mentioning that the catalogue was at the printers. That post gives full details of the format of the post. This one, featuring some of the images I produced today is to say that the print catalogue is now available and that it will be online for the weekend.
THE CATALOGUE
Here are pictures of the outside covers of the catalogue…
Front and back cover togetherFront coverBack Cover
SOME OF TODAY’S IMAGES
The bulk of today was spent imaging militaria from one of regular vendors. Then it was time for some scouting.
This image shows that this gun has been deactivated – it is a pure museum piece (lot 163)
An account of yesterday at work and the current state of play as regards James and Sons March Auction.
INTRODUCTION
A brief post about two interlinked things – yesterday at work and the plans for James and SonsMarch Auction, which is at Fakenham Racecourse.
A TWO DAY SALE
Due the quantity of items we have received, we have over a thousand lots in this sale, so we will be conducting it over two days. The format for this auction will be:
Tuesday 29th March: Set up and viewing
Wednesday 30th March: Day 1 – lots 1-600 go under the hammer (the cut-off is after half-way as we can leave the stuff at the venue overnight).
Thursday 31st March: Lots 601-1050 and clear-up
The catalogue has been sent to the printers and will therefore be available shortly, and an online version should be ready for viewing by the end of the week.
IMAGING
Although the vast amount of stuff in this auction and lack of staff to image it has left us a little behind where we would like to be in that regard there are only about 200 lots in this sale for which we thus far have no image. I conclude this post with some of the best of yesterday’s images…
The war that led to the creation of this silk map was one that I am proud to say that I virulently opposed, but the map itself is splendid.
This was the lest lot O imaged yesterday.
For those interested in historic buildings, these five volumes which form lot 494 represent effectively a “Complete Guide to Scotland’s Historic Buildings”.
aspiblog 