I do not have a lot of links or infographics to share, but my title piece will be accompanied by plenty of pictures. I hope that you all enjoy this post and will be inspired to sahre it.
NEAR MIRACULOUS CATCH UP OPERATION
Because of all the fuss over the Great Charity Centenary Auction work for James and Sons own June auction was somewaht delayed. However, unlikely as it seemed only a few days ago, the catalogue for this auction will be back from the printers by the end of Thursday, and we should be up online at the-saleroom by not long after that as well.
I was working with the scanner and the camera all day today. An example of scanner work is this collection of militaria (nine lots in total, which I show as the original scan, and then the individual images I extracted from it…
Lot 267Lot 279Lot 285Lot 286Lot 295
Lot 305The original nine lot scan.Lot 269Lot 272
Another set of images that I used the scanner for were these very old coins…
Also, as mentioned, I took photographs of a wide variety of items, some of which are below…
This image of a set of gold proof coins from Jersey was obtained with the scanner.
A LINK AND AN INFOGRAPHIC
I am treating these together, asthere is only one fo each. The link is to one of Vox Political’srecent offerings. The blog post ends with the feature image, this infographic courtesy of Jon Swindon..
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:
I have a few links to share with you, but most of the post will be taken up with the title piece.
CATALOGUE FOR GREAT CENTENARY CHARITY AUCTION IN PRINT
The catalogue for the Great Centenary Charity Auction is now available in printed form. For more detail please consult the official post on www.greatcharity.org, which can be viewed here. Just to whet the appetiite further here is a glimps of the cover…
A HARD DAY’S IMAGING
Having knocked the Great Charity Centenary Auction on the head, today was almost entirely devoted to imaging for James and Sons own June auction. I imaged a wide variety of lots today, and reckoning that pictures speak louder than words, the rest of this section will be images of some the better lots…
This is lot 1 – starting as we would like to continue!
LINKS
Just three links with this post, these two related stories from Patheos:
2) Miley Cyrus shows herself to be capable of being sensible.
Our final link is to a piece in The Mirror about the DWP’s continuing effort to avoid revealing just how many people have died as a result of welfare cuts.
I hope you have enjoyed this post and will be inspired to share it.
As well as my title piece, I have a few links to share. I also have some good pictures, so it will not all be text.
UPDATE ON THE GREAT CENTENARY CHARITY AUCTION
The Great Centenary Charity Auction takes place on June 28th, and after two hard days at the silo in Syderstone where stcok for this auction is currently being stored and an intense day of editing at my desk on Fakenham (today), virtually all the images are ready. Given the situation we were in not very long ago (the Irishman in the joke about directions would definitely have been saying that he wouldn’t start from there – and he would have been 100% justified!) this is little short of miraculous.
The VC in the pictures below has a particularly interesting history – it was stripped from the person to whom it had been awarded when he was convicted of several serious criminal offences…
As a very keen bridge player, this twin pack of cards naturally appealed…
My last set of pictures is of lot 537…
LINKS
Just a few links for you this time. Firstly, from the Visit Norfolk website, a very interesting piece about our region’s 1,000,000 year history of human habitation.
Cosmos Up, regulars in this links section have two interesting offerings today:
This is going to be one of my ‘interesting mixed posts’ as John P Ointon of notesfromthenorth recently described one, featuring my main body piece, links, infographics and photos.
AUCTION AND ITS AFTERMATH
James and Sons had their May auction this Wednesday just gone, at The Maids Head Hotel, Norwich and Thursday was therefore tied up with attending to tasks created by the auction. I made sure that my database was fully updated with details of people who had bid online, produced a word document containing a full list of all of these individuals for our records and also made a start on the press releases.
The auction day was marred by the fact that the venue was far too hot, and for much of the day we could not open any windows due the noise of roadworks going on outside. Nevertheless, there were some good moments, as there should have been given the quality of the stuff we had going under the hammer…
The dog decides to sample the view from the auctioneers chair!
There were two items which stood above all else, and gave the themes for my press releases, lot 218 a gold $20 coin in a sealed plastic box which having been estimated at £1,000 actually went for £1,800, and lot 251 a Waterloo medal, which was estimated at £1,500-2,000 and went for an eye-popping £4,700.
One the Thursday, while prepping the press releases I assembled a composite of all the images I had of the gold coin, and I will conclude this part of the post bu sharing the full gallery with you…
This is the composite image…While this image and the next five are the component parts of that composite.
INFOGRAPHICS AND LINKS
First up, my one stand-alone infographic…
A POST FROM AUTISM MOM
This wonderful post fully deserves a subsection to itself, and comes with some excellent infographics, which I have included here:
I have gained another new follower both for this blog and for my twitter account this morning, and I take this opportunity to share her latest blog post, a wonderful open letter to a fellow parent.
WIND POWER
Take Part Daily provided this superb feature on the possible future of wind power in the United States. As well as links to both the full post and the graphic I include a still of one part of the graphic:
I have three more links to share. First of all, this one from Vox Political on the DWP’s desperate attempts to avoid revealing what they obviously know will be a devastating truth. From Manchester comes this horrible story of a speeding motorist who killed someone, bragged about his speeding, and still only got sentenced to six years in jail. Finally, an important petition: El Salvador has one river still capable of providing it with clean drinking water, which will soon not be the case if one greedy mining company gets its way. I urge all of you to sign and share this petition.
PHOTOGRAPHS
Just before moving on to my final set of photographs I hope you have enjoyed this post, and if you have I urge you to share it. These last pics are all from a display in Fakenham Library…
As well as the title section I have some important links to share with you.
THE GREAT CENTENARY CHARITY AUCTION
The Great Centenary Charity Auction will be happening at Fakenham Racecourse on June 28th, with the first lot going under the hammer at noon. It looks like there will be something in the region of 700 lots in total at this auction, and another auction is intended for March next year. Official posts will be appearing on the greatcharity website, while the twitter and facebook pages also merit attention. I have been attending to the imaging of stuff for this auction and I have some splendid pictures to whet your appetite…
This lovely uniform (first three images) is lot 225
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It has been exhausting work doing all this imaging, but I am confident that the end result will be worth it.
LINKS
My last post, about the Hanse Festival was reblogged by mapsworldwide and here by way of reciprocation is a link to their own post about the same festival.
A mother and her children are facing homelessness because she understandably refuses to live in the same area as her violently abusive ex-partner and Barnet council indefensibly refuse to make her another offer. Read the full story courtesy of Sweets Way Resists and please take action.
A potentially good news story concerning Hale Library courtesy of Altrincham Today.
Finally, to end this post, a couple of curios from Cosmos Up:
Some good links to various interesting and important items, an important infographic in among them, a couple of classic recipes and some excellent images.
Before I get into my own stuff, I have some links to share…
LINKS
I start with a series of posts about the general election that has just happened:
First up, the ever reliable Mike Sivier of Vox Political. It was also Mr Sivier who provided the introduction to the my next post, written by David Hencke. Another frequent source of good material is John P Ointon who blogs as notesfromthenorth and who provided a fine response to the general election. My final piece of election related material, given that the Tories have an absolute majority in the house on 36% of the votes cast, is a petition calling for a change in the system of parliamentary representation courtesy of change.org, accompanied by a graphic showing what the the break down of MPs would be under PR…
A combination of two busy and eventful days and a sleepless night in between (following the election) has meant that I have not posted recently. I revisited a classic recipe of mine this week, my own customised version of Madhur Jaffrey’s Lemony Chicken and Coriander, although rather than using thighs I used a half chicken cut into managable size pieces with the aid of ‘the world’s sharpest knife’. This recipe featured, along with another that I have not used in a very long time in my first ever blog post. Here are both recipes in a graphic…
The ‘PR’ graphic I put up earlier of course is based on actual votes and not on how people would have voted had PR been in force (e.g. I voted labour in the general election for a combination of reasons which would not have applied under PR – the question would have been whether to vote Green – as I did in the local elections – or for the Trade Union and Socialist Coalition, TUSC). In view of the number of people who clearly did not vote the way they had told pollsters they would, here is photographic proof that I did precisely what I said I would…
I have done some interesting imaging at work this week, finishing off the May stuff and imaging one piece of stock for the June sale that needed to be protected from damage…
These five images are of the medals that feature in lot 424A in our May auction. There were two pics, one taken with flash and one without, the latter of which was treated in three different ways and the former in two.
These date from Thursday, now some stuff from yesterday…
The documents that accompany the medals pictured earlier.The next six images are of lot 653 in the June sale (It was mighty hard to capture every detail of something so intricate as this, hence so many pics)
ON SHARING
At the start of this post I shared various things from other sources, because they had made an impact on me. If you enjoyed this post I would be very grateful for you to share it, and I also encourage you to share individual items from within it if they particularly appeal to you. My final words, once rendered by the estimable Mr Bilbo Baggins as “thag you very buch” are embodied in the image with which this post concludes and apply to all who read it through to the end:
Before getting to the main meat of post I have a few links to share with you.
LINKS
My first link is to a devastating expose of the bogus organisation Autism Speaks, courtesy of The Art of Autism.
My next link, for those of a scientific bent is to an interesting post on Faraday’s Candle.
My last two links are related, in that they refer to the necessity of making sure that on this day next week Downing Street is the scene of an eviction. First of all, a piece focussing on the NHS. Secondly, and accompanied by the picture that is at it’s heart comes this expose of just how vile the Tories are courtesy of Vox Political.
YESTERDAY’S AUCTION
I have already written about the presence of a display for the Great Centenary Charity Auction on their website. Here is a single picture to whet your appetite for that…
A combination of the necessity of being on a bus that was due to leave at 7:00AM and wanting have lots of time to make my preparations before setting off meant that I rose at a ludicrously early hour (suffice to say that even with summer approaching and the cricket season well under way I was up before the sun).
The presence of TV cameras filming Antiques Road Trip meant that I felt obliged to dress for the occasion, wearing a previously unworn shirt, a tie and a smart jacket that I knew would go with the shirt. I knew I would be on camera, because I was going to be on the rostrum next to the auctioneer when the road trip lots were going under the hammer. We were also providing training to a colleague, who did a couple of stints on the rostrum, immediately before the break to set up for the road trip stuff, and taking over after the road trip section had finished to do the final furlong (well we were at a racecourse!).
The two experts, Charlie Ross and James Braxton, both made a point of shaking hands with David and myself before leaving. It will be interesting when it finally goes out on air to see how it all looks.
After a quiet start, with the postcards doing nothing and the banknotes not all that much, things did pick up. I got one set of bookmarks, although not the ones I had really wanted.
The auction finished as expected just before 3:30PM, and then it was just a matter of clearing up. Finally, at 4:50PM the last van load was dealt with, giving me time for a pint at the Bull Inn, Bridge Street before catching the bus home.
I finally got back to my flat almost exactly 12 hours after setting out. A change of clothes, a quick call at my Aunts house to pick up the post and see if the plants needed any watering (they did not – it had evidently rained in King;s Lynn earlier in the day) and I was finally able to switch off.
Here are some pictures from the auction room before things got underway properly…
Antiques Road Trip lots on displayAll the Antiques Road Trip Lots are visible in this shot.The view from the rostrum.The front cover lot.The view from the back of the roomPrecious items in this auction.
As usual, before getting into the main meat of this post I have some links to share with you.
LINKS
First of all, I urge everyone to sign and/ or share Joanne Fowler’s petition about the treatment of her 93 year old father.
The only other link I am sharing with you today is courtesy of Vox Political and while I would the first to acknowledge that Tory lies are no longer (if they ever were), the stuff of headlines, the scale and extent of the lying that Mike Sivier exposes is even by the standards of the political home of Mr Shapps/Green/Fox scandalous as the full post reveals.
I was aware that Thursday and Friday were going to be hectic, since I had decided to attend an evening meeting in Norwich (of which more in a later post) in between two work days, and on the Friday evening I would be calling in at my parents house to pick up the post since they are currently away in Greece. What I did not factor in was losing half an hour at Castle Meadow, central Norwich not because a bus failed to show, but because the bus did show but failed to stop! This is at a very important stop, and with me approaching the bus with the fare already in my hand ready to hand over. I absolve Norfolk Green as a company of any blame for this incident, especially given the high standards of service I have generally received over a decade of being a regular user of their buses, but they clearly have at least one rogue driver. This meant that instead of arriving at my desk at 9:30 and being able to ease into Friday’s work I arrived on the dot of 10 and had to get stuck in rather quicker. Also, the down-time immediately post work was reduced by the necessity of getting a haircut (being on the rostrum with Antiques Road Trip filming and having a jungle on top of my head would not have been a great idea!).
Thursday was taken up with imaging in the main, although I did get a press release out early in the day, and created a poster near the end of they day. This was to advertise an antique Enfield-Snider percussion cap rifle which will be in the May auction (n.b. it is of a calibre that is no longer manufactured and hence can no longer be used as a firearm)…
Much of the rest of Thursday’s imaging was mundane stuff, but some is worth sharing…
Friday morning was taken up with imaging lots for a Timed Bid auction, conducted via www.the-saleroom.com, not many of which were of any great interest. In the afternoon, in between starting to load the van ready for going down to the Racecourse on Tuesday, I imaged a handful of lots which needed special attention…
This gold coin, lot 218 in our May auction, was a particular challenge as it had to be imaged through plastic casing.
The only other imaging I got done in the afternoon was of the Soviet Union badges which comprise the last three images of this post.
As is now quite frequently the case I start by sharing some important bits and pieces…
LINKS
First of all, a shocking story from across the pond concerning an 11 year old autistic boy who has been convicted of assaulting a police officer. The story, from which no one in any position of authority emerges with the slightest shred of credit is the subject of a petition, courtesy of change.org, which I urge you to SIGN AND SHARE. Further details of this truly appalling story can be found by following this link. Another unpleasant story concerning autism features a 12 year old who was beaten up (to the extent of spending five days in hospital) by a known and reported bully. An up to date account can be found here.
After these horror stories, some more positive autism related stuff. Firstly, a piece on the subject of inclusion, which deserves to be read in full. My final autism related piece is by way of introducing you to a site called the art of autism and it concerns somebody named Jason.
Moving on, and interesting science piece from the Independent about an early, major collision and its role in shaping our planet. The very last item in this little collection comes courtesy of journeyaroundtheglobe.com and concerns the town of Volterra.
MAY IMAGING
Today I got to image a variety of items, some of which I shall now share with you to conclude this post…
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