A Massively Successful Auction

An account of yesterday’s splendidly successful auction.

INTRODUCTION

On Wednesday James and Sons had a small but very important auction featuring gold coins and proof sets. We were anticipating a very considerable success, because we knew that there were bids of sufficient size on every lot that everything would sell, and we also knew that some of the items had a very large number of watchers online (one had no fewer than 17). The rest of this post tells the story of a truly amazing auction.

TUESDAY – FINAL PREPARATIONS

In view of the high value of the gold the only items that were set out on display were as many of the proof sets as I could lay out on one large table. I also made sure that the IT was all fully functional, as the last thing we wanted was for a glitch to affect this auction. I was able to enjoy the NAS West Norfolk Steak Night at The Globe later that evening in the knowledge that all had gone as smoothly as it could have (I restricted myself to a modest two pints of Ringwood Fortyniner in view of the importance of the following day).

WEDNESDAY – A DAY OF TRIUMPHS

I awoke a few minutes before my alarm was due to go off (not uncommon with me – the alarm is more insurance policy than necessity) and left my flat precisely as intended at 6:45, ensuring that there was no chance of missing the bus. Arriving at the shop, I unlocked, deactivated the alarm, then relocked the door as in view of what was in the shop I did not want customers coming in while I was there on my own. I then began to set up for the day. The auctioneer arrived not very long after me, and I was able to complete the setup, verify that everything was working and take some photographs. Before nine o’clock customers started arriving, and by 9:30 it was standing room only in the shop, as no fewer than 16 potential room bidders were present, in addition to over 60 online bidders and not a few who had put commission bids in in advance of the sale.

P1190889 — The proof set display, with lot 135 front centre

P1190886 — One of the two significant coins from lot 139…

P1190888 — The setup before anyone else had arrived.

P1190892 — Potential room bidders (three pics)

: Lot 139 on the big screen.

THE AUCTION STARTS

The first five lots were 1974 Krugerrands which were expected to make approximately £800 each and did exactly that. Then came lot 6, the James II Guinea which was one of two items that had been the subject of a query the previous day as a result of which it had extra images above the regular image gallery for such an item. Estimated at £500-750 the interest it had attracted saw the final hammer price reach exactly £1,000.

The first three images constitute my regular image gallery for a single coin.

6-c — One of the questions asked about this coin related to the edge, and to help back up my own comments on the edge of this coin I took two photographs that between showed it in its entirety.

Lot 7 was a William III Half Guinea, which in relative terms fared even better since with an estimate of £300-500 it actually went for £900!

Lots 8 to 24 inclusive were half sovereigns, and all sold well, most going for around the £100 mark. Lots 25 to 90 incluisve were…

SOVEREIGNS FROM VICTORIA THROUGH ELIZABETH II

These we knew would sell respectably, because a major and long standing client whose job is to sell gold items had put in commission bids of £180 a time on the whole lot, confirming our auctioneers valuation was on the mark. Most of the sovereigns actually sold for more than that, £190 being a common figure and a few of them going to and in some cases beyond £200. Then came…

LOTS 91-5 – THE HUGE SUCCESSES

The first four of these lots were high value gold proof sets which we were expecting to be on or around the four figure mark. Actually, and barely believable they went for £1,600, £2,000, £2,000 and £1,600 respectively!!

Lot 95 was a sovereign in a gold mount with a gold chain and 8 1mm diamonds (in otherwords a very fancy necklace). Estimate at £300-400 it eventually sold for £550.

After these it was time for…

THE REGULAR PROOF SETS

Of course after what gone before the proof sets were a little bit “after the Lord Mayor’s show”, but there were still a handful of highlights to come.

LOTS 113 AND 114

These were respectively a Scottish and Welsh proof set (hence the split colouring of the heading) each expected to make £8-12. The Scottish set went for £20 and the Welsh for £18

These were a mere curtain raiser for…

LOT 121

A 1992 proof set featuring an EEC 50p coin the rarity of which turned a £10-15 estimate into a £50 hammer price!

The next big success was…

LOT 128

This 1999 proof set featuring a Diana Princess of Wales £5, a bimetallic rugby £2 and Scottish coins from £1 down to 1p had an estimate of £15-20 and ended up going for £32.

Then came two successive monster successes with…

LOTS 135 and 136

Lot 135, a 2009 proof set, featuring as it did the highly prized Kew Gardens 50p, the Henry VIII £5, and the Darwin and Burns £2 coins was estimated at £100-120 but ended up going for £220!

135-d — A close up of this one was mandatory.

135-e — I also deemed the Darwin £2 worthy of a close-up

Lot 136 was a 2010 proof set featuring a Restoration of the Monarchy £5 (350th anniversary thereof), A Florence Nightingale £2, a London £1 and a Girl Guiding 50p. Estimated at £20-25 it sold for £100!!

Not long later came…

LOT 139 – A BITTERSWEET IMAGER’S TRIUMPH

This London Underground 150th anniversary proof set had been badly misdescribed, with one of the £2 coins mentioned as featuring trains, and the roundel coin not even mentioned, but the imager’s efforts more than compensated for this. Estimated at £25-30 it attracted sufficient interest to push the final price up to £52 (and inter alia out of the imager’s reach, hence the heading of this section).

139-c — The ’roundel’ coin which is fairly rare.

139-b — The other London Underground 150th anniversary coin, which is much less rare.

That was the last of the yearly proof sets, but there were still a few lots to go, and two of them provided noteworthy results.

LOT 148 – A SENEGALESE STUNNER

This 1975 Senegal Triple Crown, solid sterling silver, Euroafrique 150 franc coin, boxed and with a certificate was estimated at £15-20, but a lively bidding battle pushed the final price up to £48.

Finally, came…

A STRONG FINISH

Lot 151, the final lot in this small sale, was an accumulation box containing a few good bits and some ordinary stuff. Estimated at £40-50 it ended up going for £95.

Once the auction setup had been dismantled and the last room bidders had gone it was time for me to attend to other matters. You can view a catalogue for the general collector’s auction we have next Wednesday here.

THURSDAY – PUTTING TOGETHER A PRESS RELEASE ABOUT THIS AUCTION

Yesterday morning I produced a PR piece about the success of this sale, going big on the images as well. I conclude this piece with a link and a screenshot:

GOLD COIN AUCTION GIVES FAKENHAM AUCTIONEER BEST RESULT IN YEARS

A Grockle’s Eye View of Cornwall 12: Homeward Bound

Bringing my series on my visit to Cornwall to a close.

INTRODUCTION

All good things come to an end, even this series of blog posts, and with this post we do indeed reach the end of my account of my visit to Cornwall.

THE JOURNEY HOME

With my train due to leave St Germans at 9:27AM on Monday July 16th we had decided that a departure from Fort Picklecombe at 8:30AM was warranted due to the fact that I had a reserved seat on that train, which was going all the way to London, and would have been in the region of £100 down had I missed it. We arrived early at the station, and once the train arrived I found my seat easily enough, although as had happened on the journey down they had reversed the running order of the train and I was facing against the direction of travel instead of with it (trust me, for a photographer this is quite significant). Here are the last of the Cornish pictures…

The rest of this post takes place outside Cornwall. The train ran a trifle slow, arriving into Paddington sufficiently late to ensure that I would not make my intended connection at Kings Cross. However, the failings of Great Western were as nothing compared to those of Great Northern. The train arrived at Cambridge where it was supposed to divide in two as usual with four coaches going on to King’s Lynn and the rest going back to London, then a good couple of minutes later we got an announcement telling us that the split was not happening and that we needed to go to Platform 7. As a direct consequence of this mess up we then hit two red signals, at Waterbeach and again at Watlington, arriving into King’s Lynn much later than we should. This made it four successive journeys on Great Northern where the schedule had not been adhered to. Their failures appear to have got worse – just a few days ago I saw a special bus service running between King’s Lynn and Ely.

Tunnel trucks — These trucks look like tunnel segments on wheels.

Royal Oak — Westbourne Park, the penultimate Hammersmith & City line station west of Paddington – until quite recently local mainline train services stopped here as well. When the Metropolitan Railway opened in 1863 it used GWR rolling stock (broad guage in those days), and there were track connections between the two railways. This line to Hammersmith became part of the Metropolitan Railway in 1864, and between 1877 and 1910 services ran through to Richmond by way of a viaduct from Goldhawk Road the far end of which can still be obeserved at Ravenscourt Park. The last legacy of these connections is that today the Hammersmith and City platforms at Paddington are nos 15 and 16 of the main station.

Interchange, Baker Street — The interchange from Circle and Hammersmith and City through to the four platforms that serve the Metropolitan line at this station (and escalators down another four platforms which serve the Bakerloo and Jubilee lines)

A Grockle’s Eye View of Cornwall 11: The End of the St Michaels Mount Day

Concluding my account of the day at St Michael’s Mount as we near the end of my series about my visit to Cornwall.

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the latest installment in my series of posts about my recent visit to Cornwall. This post completes the day at St Michael’s Mount, leaving me with a post to do about the journey home and finally a page from which all the posts about this trip can be accessed. The fact that this will mean (including the page) 13 pieces relating to the trip bothers me not a jot – I have no more time for triskaidekaphobia than I do for any other ~~ridiculous~~ superstition.

WRAPPING UP ST MICHAEL’S MOUNT

Having finished our exploration of the mount itself it was time for lunch, which was excellent. The establishment at which we ate our lunch has a rule that alcoholic drinks can only be served if food is ordered at the same time, and according to their interpretation cream teas do not count as food, so on two occasions in the course of that meal we ordered portions of chips to go with drinks. Mention of cream teas (a speciality of the far west of England) brings me to a debate that rages unchecked: which goes on the scone first, the cream or the jam? The cream advocates argue that cream in this context is the equivalent of butter (and if it is Cornish clotted cream it is so thick that one can pretty much slice it like butter!), and that if you put the cream on first you do not get jam in it. I am not sure what the jam advocates base their case on.

Lunch consumed it was time to head back to our parking place on the edge of Penzance. The tide was just starting to turn but was still a long way out, and unlike the Mont St Michel, on which the current setup of St Michael’s Mount is modelled the tide here comes in slowly (no danger of galloping horses being swallowed by an inrushing tide, as allegedly happened at Mont St Michel on one famous occasion), so we were still able to walk back across a vast expanse of beach to rejoin the official footpath just west of Marazion. I omitted to remove my socks and shoes for this part of the journey, and they ended up thoroughly soaked, although by the end of the walk they had dried out again (without the sea breeze the heat would have been fiendish).

Mathematical Pic — The first few photos here, including these mathematical pictures are from lunch

Sea birds — Just before recrossing the causeway to the mainland, we saw these birds – the one with the red bill used for digging would have been having a bonanza – there were huge numbers of worm casts in the sand.

Causeway close-up II — The causeway from close up

Farewell to St Michaels Mount — A farewell shot of the mount

A Grockle’s Eye View of Cornwall 10: The Map Room at St Michael’s Mount

Continuing my account of my visit to Cornwall. Today we look at the map room at St Michael’s Mount.

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the latest post in my series about my visit to Cornwall. As part of my coverage of a day at St Michael’s Mount I am devoting a whole post to the map collection there.

A Collection of Antique Maps

For a cartophile such as me this section of the visit was particularly good fun…

Plymouth to Senan — In the days before googlemaps this is what a walking route looked like!

Jan Janssons Cornwall — At one time the Dutch were trailblazers when it came to cartography.

Falmouth – one of the people who have noticed my posts about cornwall is **thecornishbird**, whose offerings include this about Falmouth: **https://cornishbirdblog.com/2018/07/14/things-to-do-in-falmouth/**

A Grockle’s Eye View of Cornwall 9: The Top of St Michael’s Mount and the Descent

Continuing my account of a visit to St Michael’s Mount.

INTRODUCTION

This is the third to last post about the day at St Michael’s Mount, and the ninth in my series about my summer visit to Cornwall. The next post will be all about the vast collection of antique maps that are on show here, and then a final post about the last stages of the day. I then have the journey home to cover to complete the series.

THE REMAINDER OF THE SUMMIT

At the end of the previous post in this series were about to head indoors for the second time in our exploration of St Michael’s Mount…

At this point we entered the map room. As an appetiser for the next post I offer one picture from there…

After the maps came a display featuring large amounts of weaponry…

remains of spiral staircase — The remains of a spiral staircase

Cornish map with extras — A final map, separated from all the others.

That ended the indoor stuff until lunch time.

THE DESCENT

The descent takes past an emplacement of mini-cannons which are of French Revolutionary origin…

Just beyond this I encountered a Red Admiral butterfly:

Red Admiral I — At first it had its wings folded making ID difficult…

Red Admiral III — …but when it opened them out there was little room for doubt.

Not long after this we could see our next destination, where we would be having lunch.

A Grockle’s Eye View of Cornwall 8: Ascending St Michael’s Mount

Continuing my account of my visit to Cornwall, with the ascent of St Michael’s Mount.

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the latest post in my series about my stay in Cornwall. This post takes us up St Michael’s Mount and covers some of the stuff at the top. There will be at least two and possibly three more posts about the day.

BASE CAMP (!)

Among the places at ground level, before the ascent begins are the restaurant where we would be having lunch and a visitor’s centre which provides a comprehensive introduction. After these one passes through a field that contains a dairy cottage before the ascent begins.

TL2 — No sops for creationists here! The straight truth about the formation of the granite of which the mount consists – it was formed longer before the dinosaurs roamed the earth than we are after the last dinosaurs disappeared.

THE ASCENT BEGINS

The climb up to the buildings on top of the mount begins by way of The Pilgrims Steps, continues past the Giant’s Well and the Giant’s Heart and a cannon emplacement. Then comes the first indoor section and a roof terrace where we pause until the next post in this series…

The vicinity of the Giants Heart — And about 50 yards further along The Giant’s Heart.

Wall mounted militaria I — The first weapons display – in the next post you will see another one.

Garden from above I — Us hoi polloi can only view these gardens from above – we never actually get into them.

Roof terrace — This where our next post will start from.

A Grockle’s Eye View of Cornwall 7: Walking to St Michael’s Mount

Continuing my series about my visit to Cornwall, with the first of several posts about St Michael’s Mount.

INTRODUCTION

This series has been widely spread out – the trip it describes took place between July 12 and 16. Here is a listing of the previous posts:

Getting There
St Germans to St Ives
A Visit to a Seal Colony
The End of the St Ives Day
Crossing the Cremyll Ferry to Plymouth
Historic Plymouth

Having covered Thursday, Friday and Saturday in six posts we arfe now dealing with the Sunday, my last full day in Cornwall.

THE PLAN

As all five of us (my parents, my sister and my nephew as well as me) were making the visit to St Michael’s Mount we travelled in my parents camper van instead of using the train. We wanted to be underway by eight and achieved this. We were planning to explore St Michael’s Mount in full and then have lunch at an establishment there. Things panned out pretty much as intended. The road journey is a lot less scenic than the rail equivalent, so I am going to recommend unequivocally that anyone else planning to do this use the train – the walk from Penzance (all of which is familiar to me, although we started part way along it, having located a parking place just outside Penzance) is very scenic, while there is a longer walk available from St Erth (inland for most of its duration, instead of along the sea front). Here are a couple of satellite views:

Penzance - St Michael's Mount — The coastal route starting from Penzance.

St Erth to St Michael's Mount — The longer and mainly inland route starting from St Erth. This map also features what is in alphabetic terms the last place in Britain.

THE JOURNEY IN PHOTOGRAPHS

This section ends the post, taking us across the causeway to the base of the mount:

View from the van — The only shot I managed to get from the van on the way from Fort Picklecombe to Penzance.

People crossing the causeway to the mount — A first glimpse of the causeway.

In the shallows — From Marazion the quickest way to the causeway is straight across the beach, and in the heat walking barefoot through the shallows was the way to go.

The causeway and the mount — The causeway.

A Grockle’s Eye View of Cornwall 6: Historic Plymouth

Continuing my account of my most recent visit to Cornwall.

INTRODUCTION

Yes, Plymouth is Devon not Cornwall, but my visit to the town was part of my stay in Cornwall, so it belongs in this very spread out series of posts.

THE WAR MEMORIAL

This particular memorial honours those lost at sea as well as those killed in war, because Plymouth is very much a naval town.

Memorial - distant view — A first, distant view of the memorial

Memorial base — A series of close-ups – each vertical bronze panel around the base is a list of names.

OTHER PICTURES FROM HISTORIC PLYMOUTH

There were plenty of other things to see around the sea-front…

Circualr paving pattern — A quirky pavong arrangement…

Eddystione Lighthouse — …and an explanatory plaque

AN ITEM OF SHERLOCKIANA

It will be no news to followers of this blog that I am a fan of the world’s first and greatest consulting detective, so it was pleasing to acquire a photograph with a connection in that direction:

One of Holmes’ most famous cases takes place on Dartmoor, not far from Plymouth.

THE RETURN CROSSING

It was now time to recross the county boundary into Cornwall, one again on the Edgecumbe Belle.

A Grockle’s Eye View of Cornwall 5: Crossing the Cremyll Ferry to Plymouth

The latest installment in my series “A Grockle’s Eye View of Cornwall”. This starts my coverage of Saturday in Plymouth.

INTRODUCTION

My nephew needed some things that we had to go to Plymouth for, and so he, my mother and I took the Cremyll ferry to Plymouth, attended to the shopping and then went up on to The Hoe (subject of my next post).

THE CREMYLL FERRY

Once we were safely aboard the ferry it was time for the camera to do its work:

THE SHOPPING PART OF THE EXPEDITION

We had a substantial walk from the ferry terminal on the Plymouth side to the shopping area, during which I saw a few things to photograph:

The first (or last) pub in Devon — Depending on your viewpoint this is…

Twin signs — …either the first or last pub in Devon

**The Greedy Goose**, this is also the oldest house in Plymouth. I did not get to eat here, but it is a splendid building.

Press Releases and Triangular Bridges

Some stuff about upcoming auctions and press coverage thereof and the solution to my most recent mathematical teaser.

INTRODUCTION

This post deals with some of my work at James and Sons and also includes a solution to a problem I posed last week.

PRESS RELEASES

In my recent post about James and Sons’ upcoming gold coin and proof set auction I included a copy of the official press release I had put out about it. What I did not mention in that post is that we also have a less significant ajuction coming up this Monday, for which I had also out out a press release. Both are reproduced below to set the scene for what follows:

On Thursday morning I checked into the James and Sons twitter account and was delighted to spot a link to an article in the Fakenham and Wells Times (part of the Archant stable and therefore connected to the Eastern Daily Press) about the coin auction. Below is a scan of the print version of this article:

Then yesterday morning brought more positive news – a link to an article in that day’s Lynn News about Monday’s general collector’s auction. The focus of this article is some documents we have relating to William Hoste, after whom The Hoste in Burnham Market is named, and who was a protege of Lord Nelson and connected by marriage to Robert Walpole. Here is a scan of the print version of this article:

We have another auction in preparation, and I have already pretty much decided that this 19th century presentation conductors baton (it is too large to have been intended to be used) will be the feature image in the press release for that one:

11-a — For me the local connection revealed here clinches it.

THE TRIANGULAR BRIDGES

Here is the problem I set last week, followed by the answer and an official solution:

Here is a concise solution, courtesy of Chew-Seong Cheong :

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