Giving an account of James and Sons’ April auction and (in the introduction) setting the scene for the rest of the day’s blogging activity.
INTRODUCTION
This is the first of several full length posts that I am intending to put up today (I have already produced a little squib relating to today’s special Google Doodle) and so before getting into the meat of it I take this opportunity to indicate what you can expect over the course of the rest of today: Science and Nature including an introduction to a fabulous series of memes about evolution, Autism and some political stuff.
THE ARRANGEMENT OF THE AUCTION
This auction was a three-day, 1,500 lot sale, taking place on a Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. All three days took place at our shop in Fakenham. The first day stuff had to be brought down into the body of the shop on the Friday.
DAY 1: LOTS 1-500
These lots consisted of coins, banknotes, bank related ephemera, coin first-day covers and militaria. This was a successful day, with the coins and the militaria doing particularly well. After consuming my sandwiches I then had to bring the stuff for Day 2 down into the shop ready for viewing in the morning.
DAY 2: LOTS 501-1000
These lots consisted of stamps, postal history and first-day covers. This second day was always likely to be quiet, and indeed it was. However, here are some pictures of lot 856, which I acquired for £4…
The front of lot 856A close up of the six stampsA close up of the big trainThe reverse of the envelopeA c,lose up of the explanation.
The auction stage of the day was followed by the most exhausting heavy lifting of the period – day two stuff back upstairs, day three stuff downstairs.
DAY 3: LOTS 1001-1500
The items under the hammer on day three were postcards, toys, Liebig picture cards, cigarette cards, ephemera, books, vinyls and various miscellaneous items. There was enough of interest going under the hammer to ensure a successful day, and indeed to ensure that the auction overall can be considered a success. This was followed by one last heavy lifting exercise – getting the stuff back upstairs so that the shop looked more like a shop once again. Our next auction, again taking place at our shop will be on the 22nd, 23rd and 24th of May. Here are some pictures I took yesterday morning to show what went under the hammer later that day:
This cinema screen sized Charlie’s Angels poster (in the black plastic tube) was lot 1,401 and went unsold.
These Liebig’s were being sold as albums rather than as sheets, and three of the five found buyers.
The launch of a new facebook page with NAS West Norfolk connections, a bit about yesterday at work and some very interesting links.
INTRODUCTION
For the benefit of new readers it is worth reminding people that I am both NAS West Norfolk branch secretary and #actuallyautistic. Although the the National Autistic Society (NAS) has some paid staff at its London HQ branches are run by volunteers and branch money comes exclusively from fund-raising. This post therefore starts with some news from NAS West Norfolk that I consider worth sharing before continuing with a bit about yesterday at work which will include pictures and ending with some interesting links.
THE LAUNCH OF A NEW FACEBOOK PAGE
NAS West Norfolk’s Sports Co-ordinator, Grant Cotton, creator of the Autism Awareness Cup, has created a new facebook page to link all his activities. It can be viewed by clicking the image below:
YESTERDAY AT JAMES AND SONS
Yesterday was devoted to imaging as many of those lots for the March auction that were not yet images as possible (a catalogue for this auction, taking place on the 27th, 28th and 29th of March, can be viewed here). Most of the imaging I was doing yesterday was of coin lots. Here some pictures…
This is lot 248 – a seven image gallery for you to look at
This is lot 249 – a four image gallery.
From here until lot 124 we are looking at hi-res scans. Although I produced my usual three-image galleries for these coins with on exception I am sharing only the main image.
The exception – this New Zealand florin from 1934, where I choose to show the close-ups as well.
Lot 124 – the last of the scansLot 108 – the packaging indicated that three of these coins were special, so I did close ups as well as the main images
The close ups
Lot 107 – this time the packaging suggested that two of the coins deserved special attention, so they got it.
The close ups.
Lot 222Lot 223. This horrible plastic tub did not have a lid, so I rehoused the lot in a nice wooden box with a fully functioning lid (I did a ‘meringue’ style test on it, turning it upside down with the coins inside, making sure that it was not too high above a flat, clear surface when I did so).Lot 224.
LINKS
Most of these links are science related, so to clear the decks I shall start with the exception. This comes courtesy of Skwawkbox, and is a devastating indictment of Theresa May and her ‘sweetheart deal’ with Surrey County Council. I agree with the Skwawkbox assessment that this should be considered as resignation matter. As another blogger, Mike Sivier, put it when commenting on this same issue: “a turd by any other name would smell as faecal and this one sgtinks of big fat lie”. To read the Skwawbox piece click here.
SCIENCE 1: FROM LIVESCIENCE
Two very different pieces from the same source here. The first deals with small things (specifically spiders), the second with something very large (a nebula).
Wolf spiders having threesomes (yes, you read that right). Female wolf spiders are noted for eating their mates after copulation, and it may be that if two males tackle the same female there is more chance of one of them not being cannibalised. For the full story please click on the image below:
This piece is about the discovery of a huge new nebula and the attendant mystery of what its light source might be. For the full story click on the image below:
SCIENCE 2: WEIT (WITH AN ASSIST FROM YOU TUBE)
It is no great secret that I am a huge fan both of Jerry Coyne’s books (Why Evolution is True and Faith Versus Fact) and of the associated blog, whyevolutionistrue. Thus I am delighted to share with you the fact that a video series on chapter one of Why Evolution Is True is now being created. Episodes 1-3 are available to watch (and highly recommended by this blogger!), and according to WEIT’s own pieceabout the series there are two more episodes to come (yay!). I have embedded the videos below (they run in sequence) – enjoy!
An account of James and Sons auction, which took place on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week.
INTRODUCTION
On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week James and Sons had its second ever three day auction. This one had the additional twist that two different venues were being used, our own premises in Fakenham on days 1 and 2 and the Maids Head Hotel, Norwich on day 3.
DAY 1: FAKENHAM
I caught the 7:30 bus from Lynn to Fakenham, thus arriving at James and Sons at just before 8:30AM (this bus doubles as a school bus, so follows a more circuitous route from Lynn to Fakenham than the usual X29 route and therefore takes 15 minutes longer to make the journey than a regular bus). Thus I was able to get the setup done in plenty of time, and the auction got underway at the appointed hour of 10AM. On this day stamps, postal history and first day covers were being sold. There were a couple of room bidders, and thankfully large numbers of online bidders (over 250 by the end of day 3). Although there were not many things going for big amounts of money a lot of stuff did sell, and the auction had started well. I have no pictures from day 1 of this auction, but here are some images of items that will be going under the hammer in our March auction, which will be on the 27th, 28th and 29th of that month.
These first two pictures of lot 1031 in the March auction, which has an interesting story. This item is a grass sledge, designed and built by a craftsman in Sussex for use on the Downs.
The remaining images here are cigarette cards photographed after day 1 of the auction finished and before I went home.
DAY 2: FAKENHAM
The routine was the same as on day 1, but the items under the hammer were different. This day featured photographs, postcards, a few books, records, ephemera, Liebig cards, cigarette cards, cheques and coin first day covers. For most of the day there was no one present at the venue who was not a James and Sons employee, but the internet was very lively for much of the time. I had two moments of good fortune. The first featured…
LOT 864
Here are the official images of this lot:
My opening bid of £10 was unopposed, and here are the photographs I took this morning showing the entire booklet in all its glory:
About 10 minutes later we got to…
LOT 891
Here is the image gallery for this lot:
My opening bid of £8 again went uncontested, and here is a much more comprehensive set of pictures of this lot…
We start with front and back images of the cards in sets of six (the complete set contains 30)
Then we have close ups of some of the more interesting cards – this one is Richard Trevithick’s Pen-y-Darren (that y is pronounced roughly as a “uh” sound), the first commercially operated steam locomotive ever. Steam engine technology predates this by approximately 1800 years – Heron of Alexandria designed a steam operated device for opening temple doors.
The most famous of all the very early locos – Stephenson’s rocket.
This Metropolitan Railway locomotive was designed specifically for operating in tunnels.
Luxury travel on the Brighton Belle
I travelled on this stock when I visited Scotland in 1993.The only other stock in this set of 30 that I have travelled on, the legendary Intercity 125.
Overall this was a better day than we had expected – there were only a few quiet spots.
DAY 3: NORWICH
The fact that we were in Norwich for the final day of this auction meant that the stuff had to be loaded up to be transported over there, which was done at the end of day 2. It also meant that since I was going to have be in Norwich earlier than I could get there using the X29 that I claimed £5.50 in excess travel expenses as the cost of travelling there on the First Eastern Counties X1 is £11 as opposed to £5.50 if I can use the Stagecoach X29 route.
As intended I left my flat at 5:15AM and was on the 5:30 bus from King’s Lynn to Norwich, arriving at the venue at 7:30. I had my laptop with me because James and Sons were one laptop short (two working machines when we needed three). The setup was just about completed before the first viewers started turning up, and there were no issues of any sort.
Here are some photos from that early period:
This item sold for a fair amount of money.The rostrum – the black machine belongs to my employer, and we ran the operator screen (my responsibility) from it, while the white machine is mine, and we ran the auctioneer screen from that.
Only a few of these big stamp lots sold, although both helmets found buyers.
A distant view of the main display area, and visible through the window, the wall of the Cathedral Close.
THE FIRST PART OF THE SALE – COINS & BANKNOTES
There were no headline making prices, but most of these lots sold, some doing very well. We had decided to have a 15 minute break after lot 1,300 (we started the day at lot 1,000). Just before the end of the session we came to some commemorative medallions from the Gigantic Wheel, which was a feature of Earls Court between 1897 and 1906. The first was lot 1,286, which I ignored as being beyond my means. Lot 1287 however, which was only a little inferior in quality was cheaper, and my bid of £10 duly secured it. Here for comparative purposes are first the official images, scanned at 600 dpi and brightened up a bit, and then the two photographs I took today:
For auction purposes I scan each face and then produce a combined image as well as c,lose ups of each face
The photographs from earlier today.
For the record, these medallions are approximately the same size as a Queen Victoria penny.
THE SECOND PART: MILITARIA AND STAMPS
The Militaria sold well. A chess set with German markings achieved barely credible £170. Here is the official image gallery:
Plenty of other things did well as well. The stamps predictably enough did not fare very well, but everything else had done enough that the auction was an unequivocal success.
AFTER THE SALE
I had considered staying on in Norwich to attend a Green Party public meeting at which Richard Murphy would be speaking, but in the end after three demanding days I was too tired to even contemplate not being home until 11PM which is what that would have meant, and so after a visit to Norwich Millennium Library I took the bus home, arriving back in my flat just after 6PM.
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).
Images from the last couple of days at work and a mention of a future plan.
INTRODUCTION
A decision to attend an evening meeting in the fine city of Norwich yesterday somewhat limited my computer access then, hence I am sharing stuff from more than one day.
AUCTION IMAGES
Here are some images of auction lots taken over the last couple of days…
The first of nine images I took of lot 390
This book warranted six images
The specs of two supersonic aircraft – fans of Matthew Reilly will recognize the top one as the plane that replaces the destroyed Halicarnassus (Boeing 747) at the end of the Five Greatest Warriors.
Another aviation book that warranted multiple images
Colour pics of the two supersonic aeroplanes.
Lot 393 – local interest as it is about one of Norfolk’s most famous families.
SOME NON-AUCTION WORK IMAGES
These images were required for use on Ebay…
COMING UP ON ASPIBLOG
On Wednesday I attended the AGM of the West Norfolk Disability Forum, courtesy of an invite that came from Councillor Squire by way of NAS West Norfolk branch chair Karan McKerrow. I hope to put up a post about this tomorrow but for the moment as an appetiser, here is a montage featuring the extraordinary upstairs window of King’s Lynn town hall…
I have lots of new pictures, relating to the James and Sons’ August sale (Wednesday 31st). Today’s imaging has involved two types of item…
MILITARIA
You will notice that one item that has been included with militaria is actually not so, but most of these items do count as militaria…
Lot 197Lot 198Lot 199Lot 200Close-ups of both sides of the medallionEven closer-up of the ‘heads’ sideEven-closer up of the ‘tails side’The non-military item.close-up of the heads sideclose-upf of the tails side.Lot 202The cover of lot 202Lot 203close-up of the medal faceseven closer-up of the obverseeven closer-up of the reverse
Now it is time to move on to the other auction items I had to image…
EPHEMERA/ BOOKS
This section starts with lot 361, which can be thought of as an anatomisation of a rolls-royce…
The rest of the items were not quite this impressive, but there were a few other good moments…
Lot 362362-a – this mag still has it’s fold out poster (highly unusual)366366-a (again still has it’s fold out poster)Lot 372 – a box full of old calendars – I chose to showcase this one.From the very early history of cricketEngland recorded an innings victory in this match, Arthur Shrewsbury battimg six hours for a then Englan d record score of 164The Gabba over 60 years ago.Lot 376 – a scrapbook featuring cars376-a377377-aLot 551 – a remarkable album551-b551-g
EBAY IMAGES
In addition to the auction lots I had to image a few records for sale on ebay (the pictures I have included were only some of the records I imaged).
An account of a vote, a bus journey anbd a day at work.
INTRODUCTION
I am going to cover today’s events in chronological order…
THE VOTE
The easy way to make sure that you get something done is to do it early. Therefore I set off early from my flat so as to call in at the polling station before heading to catch my bus. My vote duly cast (Remain just in case anyone did not already know my intentions) I had more time than I needed to get to the bus station so I walked by a scenic route bagging a few photos along the way…
The polling station, with a couple of voters on their way in.
HEADING TO WORK
The bus arrived in good time, and the journey went without a hitch, helped along from my perspective by the non-stop action taking place in “The Great Zoo of China” (I borrowed the hardback earlier, see here for more details).
Just over two full pages which give an idea as to just how things are going to go horrifically wrong!
WORK
Not many photos from today as not much stuff was actually ready to be imaged, so I brought the database up to date. Here are images of the few lots that were ready for me…
An account of today’s imaging, largely told by way of pictures.
INTRODUCTION
James and Sons’ July auction is progressing rapidly. A wide variety of items came my way for imaging.
A BIT OF EVERYTHING
Here are some of the highlights from today’s imaging…
Aftewr today there are only a couple of coin lots l;eft top be filled in this auction. This by the way is lot 1.
A very old coin indeed (cannot make out a date but it is either 12th or 13th century)
Not quite so old – dates from Elizabeth I
A parvenu – a sprightly 127 years old
Two suitcases full of masonic regalia.
A complete domino setThe red train is damaged, the black not so – the canopy over the cab is supposed to be removable since……the driver and fireman cannot be seen when it is on.
An account of Wednesday and yesterday – with plenty of pictures. Also a link to a splendi piece on WEIT.
INTRODUCTION
Most of this post deals with events of Wednesday and yesterday.
WEDNESDAY – NORWICH
We had a small stamp sale at the Maids Head Hotel in Norwich, which necessitated a seriously early start. I was at the bus station at 6:00 as intended (the bus I was going to catch is scheduled to leave at 6:10, and I always like to be there early), but the bus was very late. I considered briefly catching the alternative X1, but was not willing to pay twice as much money for the quicker journey (£11 for the X1, run by First, £5.50 for a day-rider plus on the X8/ X29 Stagecoach route). Finally, over 20 minutes after it was due to leave the bus arrived to pick up passengers. It made good time once it was under way, apart from the inevitable crawl past Hellesdon Hospital, and I was at the venue by 8:15. There were no computer issues, and the sale ran very smoothly. Those items that sold went for good money, and overall the sale was as good as we could have expected.
THURSDAY – FAKENHAM
Thursday featured an early start, but not so much as the previous day, since we were holding a postal history sale at our own premises in Fakenham. This sale was more of a success than the one the day before – due to the presence of internet bidders, and a number of items made good money. Once it had finished I had time to do some imaging for the big auction on June 29th, at which some lots will be sold to raise money for the Royal British Legion’s Centre for Blast Injury Studies at Imperial College, London, and for which the catalogue is currently at the printers. There were some very large flags, one of them so huge that the only way I could image it was in the open air with two of my colleagues holding it up, one at each end. Here are the images…
One of the two images I took of the hypergiant flagThis was one of two giant flagsThis was an ordinary size flagThe other giant flagA supergiant flag – by spreading it out on the shop floor and standing a chair I was able to obtain an image of each hal;f of the flag and use my editing skills to bolt the two images together.One half of the supergiant flagThe other half of the supergiant flagLot 655 – a piece with local historical significance – and a gallery of seven images
This table needed careful handling and crafty psoitioning to get a usable image.
To end this section, a challenge to my readers: from where did I get the descriptors (giant, supergiant and hypergiant) that I used for the outsize flags?
A LINK AND THE CURRENT TEST MATCH
Having already shared Richard Murphy’s piece on licences for company directors, when I then came across a gem of a piece on WEIT I felt that I could not justify a second such post within such a short space of time. Here therefore is a link to a piece about the Freedom for Religion Foundation going after NASA for giving a grant to a theological study.
England have recovered somewhat from a very poor start. Just before the close of day 1 of this third test against Sri Lanka Jonathan Bairstow reached his century, becoming only the second England wicketkeeper after Matt Prior to reach three test centuries in a calendar year and also only the second after Les Ames to reach two in the same test series.
I finish this piece with a few more photographs:
Various model aeroplanes are currentrly on display at locations around King’s Lynn, and this picture and the next feature two of them
A bird enjoying the metal artwork that adorns the market square in FakenhamThe image of the hypergiant flag that I decided not to use as the official one.
An account of James and Sons April auction, a plug for a petition to honour the Hillsborough campaigners and some photographs.
INTRODUCTION
The day before yesterday, at the Maids Head Hotel in Norwich, James and Sons had their April auction. Overall, the auction was a great success. Although the number of internet bidders did not equal that for the March auction, there were 180 internet bidders, and this was a one day sale whereas March had been a two day affair. I will also be sharing some other stuff, including photos, at the end of this piece.
GETTING THERE
My travel expenses have recently gone down, due to the introduction of an all-day ticket which covers travel on any Norfolk route save the Coast Hopper and costs £5.50. This did mean that I could not get to a Norwich auction as early as if I were to use the X1 route (run by a different bus company, therefore ipso facto not covered) but it was still a seriously early start, as I had to be on the first bus of the morning, at 6:10AM to arrive early enough to do everything that I had to do for the running of the auction. The run to Norwich was thankfully, save for the inevitable bottleneck near Hellesdon Hospital, a very clear one, and the bus arrived exactly on schedule.
HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE AUCTION
As I have indicated, this auction was a very successful one. The principal highlights according to my method of evaluating these things were in ascending lot number order:
Lot 78, a collection of British banknotes in a tin, valued at £30-40, sold for £65
Lot 87, a Lebanese 1 Livre note with a lilac overprint, valued at £25-30, sold for £45
Lot 232, an R101 Royal Airship Works cloth cap badge, estimated at £75-85 and sold for an eye-popping £170.
Lot 263, an Imperial German WI Zeppelin commemorative badge, estimated at £55-60, sold for £120
Lot 268, a British WWII Commandos Middle East cap badge (brass), estimated at £20-25, sold for £48
Lot 270, a WWI aerial flechette dart as dropped on enemy soldiers, estimated at £15-20, sold for £42
Lot 680, a postcard of the 1906 New Zealand rugby team, estimated at £10-20, sold for £45
Lot 714, a Victorian scrapbook assembled by Harriett Riches of Trunch, estimated at £40-50, sold for £90
Lot 715, a Victorian/ Edwardian scrapbook, estimated at £30-40, sold for £90 to the the same person who bought lot 714.
Here is a ’tiled mosaic’ of images of these lots – to see an image at full size click on it:
Lot 78
Lot 232
Lot 263
Lot 268
Lot 270
Lot 680
The main image of 714
714-a
714-b
714-c
715
PHOTOGRAPHER SNAPS UP THREE BARGAIN BASEMENT BUYS
I had contrived to arrange my breaks from computer work to coincide with periods when lots of interest to me were going under the hammer. The first such lot was number 460:
Don’s mugshot on one half of the stamps, him playing the pull shot (his trademark, and a shot about which he wrote a short piece which features in many a cricket anthology).
This was knocked down to me for £7, and better was to come near the end of the auction…
Lot 711 was a 1904 Erie Railway pass, for which a single bid of £8 sufficed:
The front of the pass.The back of the pass.Both sides of the pass.
Construction started on this railroad in 1835, and the first run along the full length of the route, from Piermont, New York to Dunkirk, New York took place in 1851. More information about this railroad can be found here. Below is a route map:
Lot 717, a print of old London Bridge based on the earliest known drawing of that structure, which is in the Pepys collection, attracted no interest from anyone save me, and was knocked down for £5:
A CALL TO HONOUR THE
HILLSBOROUGH CAMPAIGNERS
27 years ago 96 people lost their lives at Hillsborough football ground. Through most of this period people seeking justice for the dead faced a media and governments that were almost uniformly hostile to them, while the police force involved consistently refused to accept responsibility for the disaster. At long last, after a full inquiry and inquest into the deaths it has been established that these 96 people were unlawfully killed and that blame for their deaths lies squarely with the police. Just this morning I found out about a petition on38 Degrees to honour the campaigners who have fought so hard for this outcome. They are far more worthy of being honoured than many who have already been honoured (As a resident of King’s Lynn I think of Sir Henry Bellingham MP, apparently knighted for the great feat of having attended the same school as the prime minister, albeit at a different time). If you share my view…
Does this look like the start of a public footpath to you? It is, and you are looking at one reason why the developer who perpetrated this (with whose name I shall not sully this blog) are personae non grata in King’s Lynn
My contribution to this document was to scan the postcard that appears on the front cover.This is the only example of this particular £2 coin that I have thus far seen. I approve of commemorating Darwin, but not necessarily of the chosen picture (a Galapagos tortoise, or finch, or a map of the Galapagos islands would have been my choice).
