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.
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).
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!)
A brief account of today at work and a plug for the Green Party manifesto in the upcoming London mayoral elections.
INTRODUCTION
As well as details from today at work I have something else to share which will be revealed later.
THE APRIL AUCTION
Last week James and Sons had its March auction, which attracted unprecedented interest among online bidders, with almost 300 registering to bid. The April auction catalogue is available in print and can now be viewed online by clicking here. Today featured an big effort to get the imaging done, with the result that most lots now have their accompanying image or images. Some of the highlights from today’s imaging now follow…
GREEN MANIFESTO FOR LONDON MAYOR ELECTION LAUNCHED
The Green Party manifesto for the London Mayoral elections in 30 days time is now out, and very impressive it is too. Here are some links for you to follow up:
An account of working on various things in connection with James and Sons’ next auction (Tuesday October 6th, action starts at 10AM).
INTRODUCTION
This brief post is about James and Sons next live auction. Regular readers of this blog will recall that it was scheduled for September 30. Events intervened, and the date was changed to Tuesday October 6th, but all is now back in order.
THE PREPARATIONS
We thought that all the gremlins had been dealth with when the first batch of catalogues arrived back from the printers until someone glancing at the inside of the catalogue just after they had arrived in the shop noted that something was amiss in about a nanosecond and had put a finger on the problem in not much longer. Unbelievably, although the cover was right the listing was the August listing reproduced in its entirety. Fortunately, the printers did not argue over whose mistake it was (the evidence against them being absolute) and set about rectifying the mistake. Even more fortunately the speed with which a certain individual (one of those advantages of autism mentioned in this post) had spotted the problem meant that none of the faulty catalogues had even been put in envelopes, much less posted. The catalogue is also available for viewing online.
A MAMMOTH EMAIL CORRESPONDENCE
Most of Thursday at work was taken up with dealing queries about the upcoming auction. There was one individual who had sent requests for images of every banknote in lots 590-8 inclusive, each of which was a whole album full of said items. Here is a sample image which just happened to be the last note of the last lot in this list…
FILLING IN THE GAPS
Also in the last fewf days I have been filling in the remaining gaps in the imaging (in most cases gaps that were there because the lots had not actually been assembled – they were bulk coin lots in the main). Here a few highlights…
With this lot, the box merited attention at leats as much as the coins within.
Not a bulk coin lot – a late description change.
This also necessitated a late change of description on the online catalogue.
GETTING THE WORD OUT
Principal among yesterday’s tasks was getting an email out to our online customers about the auction. I prepared the text part of the email using word, assembled a montage of a few of the better images and once I got the go ahead sent it out. I conclude this post by sharing the images and the text with you.
This is how I assembled the six foregoing images into a montage.A JPG of the original word document, created by screendumping and cropping.
As well as my title piece I have some photos which connect to that and some cracking links to share with you. Read, enjoy and please share…
OPERATION CATCH UP
The combination of two auctions happening in the space of four days and a degree of failure on the organsiation front has made things somewhat hectic of late. However, after a full day imaging for our June auction today, I believe that we will be able to give our online viewers a week to look at the items that will be going under the hammer, which did not look likely at one point. Today’s imaging has been very varied, including some lovely Hornby toys (Hornby for the uninitiated are THE name when it comes to railway themed toys and models). There were also some decent stamp lots and some interesting militaria. To end this section here are some pictorial highlights…
LINKS
Here as promised are those links, starting with a fistful on the subject of…
RELIGION
My first three links are all related to the same organisation:
A single link, being given a subsection to itself. This is a petition being run by Avaaz to ensure that the South African government does the right thing and takes the opportunity to arrest and incarcerate former Sudanese president Omar Al-Bashir
SCIENCE AND MUSIC
An unusual juxtaposition, but both my science related pieces are concerned with planets, and there is a very well known piece of music called The Planets, so I considered it acceptable on this occasion. The music related link is to a piece by Charlotte Hoather about Madama Butterfly, in a production of which she will soon be appearing. My two planets themed pieces both come from Cosmos Up:
This is going be to what I think of as a ‘standard issue’ blog post – my title piece, a couple of infographics that have caught my eye, some interesting links and a few of my own photographs.
IMAGING, IMAGING AND MORE IMAGING
With James and Sons’ own June auction and the Great Centenary Charity Auction which is being conducted by James and Sons happening within four days of one another I have a heavy load of imaging to get through. The last of the GCCA stuff was done yesterday, and I then got back to imaging for the regular June auction, on which I had made a start before I was commandeered to image the stuff for the GCCA.
At least today, with the GCCA stuff out of the way, I will be working at my usual location the whole day, and should get a lot done.
Towards the end of yesterday I got a few bits of June imaging done, some of which I shall share now…
LINKS
I am grouping these links by subject matter, because although there are only a few of them, they cover a wide range of topics…
RELIGION
I have two pieces in this section, both courtesy of Patheos:
Just the one piece, but it is an excellent one, and it is feel-good story to end my links section on an upbeat note, courtesy of ramblingsofaspecialmom – a story about finding the right kind of support.
INFOGRAPHICS AND A CLOSING NOTE
I hope you have enjoyed this post and will be encouraged to share it.
No images with this post I’m afraid, as I did not do any imaging today. However, I am going to be getting my Nikon Coolpix P520 back from repair this evening (they are delivering it to me at my flat), so I will soon have some really good pictures once again.
My day started with a vigorous warm-up (much needed in view of the weather) consisting of an hour and a quarter worth of fetching and carrying (bringing an entire auction down two floors so it could be laid out in the shop for viewing), continued with some work on the database as I plugged on with the Sisyphean task of simultaneously wrapping up one auction and preparing for another, and finished with polishing off a cup of James and Sons style iced coffee. What is James and Sons style iced coffee? Well it is made in this way:
1)Make yourself a cup of coffee at the start of your working day
2)Be so busy that you don’t get to drink it until the end by when (at this time of year) it will be a more than passable impersonation of iced coffee!
Twitter continues to go well, with @greatauction approaching 300 followers in spite of a certain lack of material and @aspitweets not far short of 800.
My main imaging task today was producing pictures for the back cover of the next catalogue, some of the highlights being included below. I also imaged some postal history lots after this with what was left of the day.
Now for some pictures…
This is lot 1 in the December sale.
This is a composite of five coin lots which I scanned at the same time before separating out.
aspiblog 