Neurology Appointment and Other Stuff

A brief account of my appointment with the neurologist at QEH and of the arrival of my new computer.

INTRODUCTION

Yesterday I attended an appointment with the neurologist at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, and I also dropped my old computer at PC World so that they could transfer stuff from it to my new computer, and my aunt picked up both machines from them today.

THE NEUROLOGIST APPOINTMENT

This went well. The dizziness and disorientation I experienced as an immediate response to my new anti-seizure medication appears to relate to a problem with my inner ear, which meant that organizing an appointment with the audiologists at Addenbrooke’s became of increased importance. This appointment is booked for 11:30 on June 3rd, immediately after I have other appointments at Addnebrooke’s, t0 minimize the number of journeys to and from Cambridge. I also have in case of emergency a medication for taking if the dizziness gets really bad. I am greatly relieved to have some answers and the prospect of further answers at the audiology appointment.

WITHOUT THE COMPUTER

Yesterday afternoon and evening I had a lot of time without access to a computer, and I filled some of it by mounting postcards for display until I ran out of glue dots (I had three postcards still to mount to complete the intended display, as you will see), and I have some stamps that will need the same treatment if I am to display them. This morning I used my phone to open facebook and post a message on the NAS West Norfolk Commitee page. Here are some pictures from yesterday:

P1230537 (2) — As these pictures show depending on layout considerations one can mount three or four postcards on each side of an A4 sheet, meaning that each section of a Poundland display file contains 6, 7 or 8 postcards according to layout.

P1230559 (2) — These are the three I have still to mount…

P1230560 (2) — …and I took the opportunity to get a close-up of this one.

OTHER PHOTOGRAPHS

Of course these are not the only photographs I took…

P1230510 (2) — …and this is the edited version.

A 100 Cricketers 1: Introduction and First XI

The start of a new series which will be appearing regularly in this blog…

INTRODUCTION

This is the first in what I envisage being a long series of posts, and will set the scene for the entire series.

A NOTE ON THE DESIGNATION ‘ELEVENS’

Although I have divided my cricketers into elevens, that being the number the usually comprises a team I am not implying that these elevens are in any particular order. There are many ways to pick an 11 person team out of the players I have chosen and you may well have ideas of your own by the end of the series of what your elevens would be. All of my elevens could definitely function as teams, and all are of mixed sex. Within each 11 I have further subidivided into categories based on the types of players in the team.

SOME BASIC CRITERIA

All the players I shall cover are players who have been active during my lifetime, and specifically players who I have witnessed either live, on TV or via radio commentaries (my favourite way of following cricket so long as the commentators are up to the job). All the players featured would be worth a place for one particular specialism, even if they are also excellent at other aspects of the game – a genuine all-rounder if you have such a thing is wonderful news, someone not quite up to the job with either bat or ball is a waste of space. Being English and having come to cricket during the 1980s I witnessed the dread decade of the 1990s when desperation to fill the void created by the decline and eventual retirement of Ian Botham led to a succession of medium pacers who were also respectable lower order batters being pushed as the magic bullet. At one time it seemed that a quick 50 and a three-for somewhere would be enough for the ‘all-rounder’ sign to be draped round the neck.

Some of my selections never got international call-ups – when I cover these players I will explain why I selected them, and there is one who I have named in anticipation of a moment that surely cannot be long delayed.

THE FIRST XI IN BATTING ORDER

My first eleven is as follows:

Tammy Beaumont
Alastair Cook
*Ellyse Perry
Kevin Pietersen
David Gower
Andrew Flintoff
+Ben Foakes
Kathryn Brunt
Jack Leach
James Anderson
Olly Stone

I will be covering this selection in four posts:

A stand alone post about Tammy Beaumont in which I shall expand on women in cricket and on the possibilities of women playing alongside the men.
A piece featuring Cook, Gower and Pietersen, the other specialist batters
A piece on the all-rounders (including Foakes in that category, as a wicketkeeping all-rounder) – Perry, Flintoff, Foakes and Brunt
A piece on the bowlers – Leach, Anderson and Stone

PHOTOGRAPHS

P1210662 — A special issue 50p (three images)

P1210659 — A Stockholm Archipelago winter scene (from postcard)

A Meal Out and Cricket

Accounts of a meal out last night and of the state of play at the MCG (very satisfying for a Pom, who by default supports Australia’s opponents!).

INTRODUCTION

This post deals with two unrelated events – last night’s supper at The Market Bistro in King’s Lynn (another staging post in my convalescence from cancer – coping with an evening out in public, which for an autistic person can be a challenge even at the best of times) and the amazing happenings overnight UK time at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. I have some pictures as well.

SUPPER AT THE MARKET BISTRO

I intended to eat a full meal and have the one alcoholic drink I can allow myself at present. My father arrived to give me a lift there as planned at about 6:30. Then he went to collect my sister from West Lynn where she was staying, a taxi firm having her down.

The food was excellent – I ate an amuse bouche but declined the bread and butter as I had ordered two courses to which I intended to do full justice (and succeeded). My starter was a duck terrine covered by a potato cage and missing (at my specific request) the egg that should have been part of it. It was delicious, though an incongruously small portion to be served in the middle of a monster sized plate. For the main I opted for pork belly accompanied by smoked beetroot, various salad type vegetables and game chips. It was excellent in every respect, and judging from the fact that every plate at the table was clean by the time we finished so was everyone else’s. I washed the meal down with a beer that was brewed in Wisbech and was absolutely delicious (and at 5% alcohol not fiendishly strong – I rejected a couple of other options as being too strong in the circumstances).

By the time I drained the last of the beer it was just after 8:30PM and I was feeling the need for home. My father gave me a lift back, and that was the end of my activity for the day.

INDIA TAKE CONTROL AT THE MCG

Over the first two days play in the Boxing Day test match at the MCG it looked like a repeat of last year’s Ashes match at the same ground with the drop-in pitch (in spite of retaining its name the MCG is preimarily an Aussie Rules venue these days) apparently lacking any pace or life. Bowlers could not get wickets and the lack of pace meant that batsmen were scoring slowly. Going into day three the scoreboard read India 443-7D, Australia 8-0.

Suddenly things started to happen. First Jasprit Bumrah bowled magnificently to record a test best 6-33 as Australia were rock ‘n’ rolled for 151. India then decided that a lead of 292 was not quite sufficient to go for the innings win and batted a second time. Patrick Cummins proceeded to knock the top of that second innings, backed up by some nasty stuff from Josh Hazlewood (both bowlers regularly propel the ball at over 145 kilometres per hour), and India closed the day at 54-5 in their second innings, a lead of 346, and almost certainly given the difficulties of chasing big runs in the final innings a victory awaiting. Nonetheless I think Kohli was wrong not to enforce the follow on – I would have much preferred to see him go for the quick kill. In the context of test cricket I would decline to enforce the follow on only if one up in the final match of a series, which this is not. Out of some 2,500 test matches a mere three have been won by teams who were made to follow on – England did it aided by the weather at Sydney in 1894, England did it again at Headingley in 1981 when Ian Botham famously “gave it some humpty” and Bob Willis then bowled like a man possessed to take 8-43 and then there was the Kolkata match when Laxman made 281, Dravid 180, India declared their second innings at 657-7 and dismissed a demoralised Australia for 212 to win by 171 runs (yes folks, the only test team ever to have lost a test match after enforcing the follow on are the Aussies, victims on the only three occasions such a comeback happened).

PICTURES

Here are the promised pictures:

P1210598 — All bar one of these pictures are postcards in an album. Although this Beck mpa is faded I still felt it belonged at the front.

P1210616 — Ending the selection for the album with one about progress.

P1210617 — A Thatcher themed £50 note (defo not legal tender!)

Christmas Update

A brief account of my Christmas period and how I managed to enjoy it in spite of limitations imposed by current state of health.

INTRODUCTION

In this post I will tell the story of my activities since Monday, and the continuing tale of rhe improvement in my state of health and happiness. There are plenty of accompanying pictures.

MONDAY – MAINLY ADDENBROOKES

Unlike the previous Monday this day although still fairly long went basically smoothly, with my treatments running exactly as planned. I was by this stage sufficiently improved to walk around the main hospital building rather than using a wheelchair. In preparation for the day I had selected three books from my shelves, and this proved a wise choice as I read all three while at the hospital.

I took some photos of some of the artwork on display at Addenbrookes as well…

P1210565 — These displays of famous people associated with Cambridge were created by the legendary Quentin Blake who cut his teeth as Roald Dahl’s illustrator.

P1210568 — I am particularly glad to see Rosalind Franklin credited in this panel (something neither Watson nor Crick did at the time after being shown her work without her having been consulted)

CHRISTMAS DAY – COLUMBIA WAY AND NELSON STREET

I was not entirely sure how I would cope with Christmas Day itself. My sister arrived at my home to pick me up at about 10AM, dropped me at Nelson Street where my aunt lives and the went to wash, change and wake up my nephew (the latter being by some way the hardest task!). A cup of coffee taken in the kitchen was a good start. Managing the stairs to use the toilet (had this proved beyond me there was a downstairs flat we could have accessed) was also good news.

Lunch was excellent, and in accordance with the advice of Research Nurse Rebecca Bradley I consumed limited quantities of alcohol (one small glass of fizz and another of white wine).

After lunch we opened the presents, which went very well. The last present was unwrapped just before 4PM. At this point I decided to call it a day and get my lift home. I walked to Boal Quay car park where the car was waiting.

Here are some pictures from the first part of Christmas Day…

P1210569 — The first five pictures were taken at my bungalow in the morning.

P1210574 — The cup I had my coffee in at Helen’s

P1210578 — Close up shots of the woodburner (using the zoom lens)

P1210584 — A tiling pattern in the kitchen.

P1210587 — Mr President put in an appearance among the presents!

One of my presents (I had already had a lot of stuff in advance, so most of the stuff I got on the day was small) was a stamp album with a few “Hagner” style pages. I devoted a little time to displaying some of the stamps that John from Musical Keys had given me while I was in hospital, and also to selecting some postcards to go in a little display album I had for them. I have yet to photograph the postcards, but here are some stamp pictures…

P1210592 — Animals, Cras, Boats and Mountains

I took one more picture, of my largest railway map, spread out on the carpet:

BOXING DAY

My Boxing Day began on Australian time as I wanted to listen to the test match from the MCG. For a Pom it was a very satisfying listen as India finished day 1 strongly placed on 215-2 with Pujara and Kohli going well together. So far today is going quite well – the district nurse was happy with my temperature and blood pressure readings (the latter at 118/69 were about as good as they have been anytime in the last two months) and I although tired I am not experiencing any sort of adverse reaction to yesterday.

A Three Day Auction Extravaganza

An account of James and Sons’ April auction – very successful overall, and to my immense relief free of any technical issues.

INTRODUCTION

This week saw James and Sons’ April auction, a three day affair on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Overall it was very successful, with a couple of disappointments, but lots of sales.

DAY 1: SPORTING MEMORABILIA, BOOKS AND EPHEMERA

In order to avoid being rushed during the preliminaries I caught the first bus of the morning, and got to the shop at 7:10AM. I attended to an urgent query first thing, and then it was time to complete the IT setup. To my great relief there were no hitches at all, and everything was in working order. During this period the auctioneer also briefed me about the May auction, and what was required in terms of imaging a very large quantity of military badges. In view of this I decided that I would have to leave some of the railway photographs unimaged, although it was a necessity from an ethics point of view to image lots 1203-12 as I was intending to buy a couple from that range, and it would not do for there to be any suggestion of influencing things in my favour by not making images available to the public.

We got underway bang on schedule at 10AM, and while there were no headline making prices a decent quantity of the sporting memorabilia did sell. Then came some books, and a few big sales. Lot 260 had an estimate of £50-75 but vigorous internet bidding pushed the final price up to £220.

Lot 260 – old and rare, and a big hit (two images)

Willie Hoppe’s “Thirty Years of Billiards”, lot 279, was in with an estimate of £20-30, but caught the eyes of online bidders to such an extent that the final hammer price was £180!

Less dramatically, lot 282, Levi Riso’s “Billiards in a Lighter Vein” had an estimate of £15-20 and actually fetched £30.

Lot 302 had an estimate of £10-20 and went for £30.

Near the end of the first day lot 340, a curious little item, attracted no interest from anyone other than me:

Lot 340 – my first purchase of this auction.

After lunch I started work on the badges for the May auction.

DAY 2: COINS AND MILITARIA

Another early arrival, and another hitch-free preliminary before going live at 10AM. We had three coin buyers in the room, and some internet interest, so the coins sold well. Lots 475, 501 and 695 all went signifiantly above estimate, and most of of the other coin lots also found buyers.

We had a 15 minute break between the coins and the militaria, which kicked off in style with lot 700. Lots 704, 705, 711, 719, 727, 761, 802, 823, 824, 828, 830, 831, 832, 837, 838, 844, 846 and 847 all also went significantly over estimate, and almost none of it remained unsold.

Lot 700 (two images) – £470 hammer price

Lot 704 (four images) – est £100-200 actual hammer price £440!

Lot 705 (four images) est £60 – 80, actual £120

Lot 711 (two images) – estimate £15-20, actual price £55

Lot 719 0- estimate £35-40 – actual price £85.

719-a — This close up of the two rings was in response to a query.

Lot 802 – only just above top estimate, but the buyer was somebody to whom I had sent an image of the reverse of this badge in response to a late query.

Lot 823 – a holster with no gun – est £10-15, actual £28.

Lot 844 – These images (alo incl those for 846 and 847) were suppliued by the vendor, along with descriptions

DAY THREE: POSTCARDS AND RAILWAY POSTCARDS

I arrived early once again, did some badge imaging and then paid a visit to Tony’s Deli (Thursday is market day in Fakenham, and this food stall is excellent value for money). For the third straight day there were no hitches in the preliminary stage – although I was not especially happy about doing the official sound check at 9:57, not least because I already knew it was working. A couple of early postcard lots (856 and 857) achieved big prices, and most of the postcards found buyers.

The other notewaorthy postcard lot was 1047, which became my second purchase of the auction. I will at some stage be giving this lot a whole post to itself, but here are some pictures for the present:

ML ex 1047 — An old Metropolitan line train near Wembley.

NL ex 1047 — Abstract art featuring a Northern line train of 1959 stock

PL ex 1047 — A picture of one of the original ‘gated stock’ trains that ran services on what was then the Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway – this scene would have taken place in 1906 or not long after.

The Railway Photographs did not attract any interest, although this was not helped by the fact that the auctioneer was hurrying through them. The only three to sell were all bought by me – lot 1071 (locomotive at Haworth), 1208 and 1209 (respectively arriving at and leaving Mallaig – for more on this journey go here):

1071 — The images available to the public (three per lot – nine in total).

1071h — And to finish, now that the items are bought an paid for, unwatermarked images taken at home (three in total)

1209h — The departure from Mallaig, with Skye visible in the background.

A few more badges imaged for the May auction, and I was able to make my last ever journey on a Stagecoach X29 (on Tuesday, when I return to work it will be on a Lynx Bus number 49, since squillionaire bus company Stagecoach have deemed their Norfolk services insufficiently profitable and bailed out on them),.

Imaging For a Three Day Auction

A heads up about James and Sons’ April auction – a monster three-day affair.

INTRODUCTION

James and Sons’ April Auction will be spread over three days – the 24th, 25th and 26th. I worked Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week so that we could get the catalogue to the printers and had enough images done to upload it to the-saleroom as well. Then, after some negotiation at the end of Wednesday I also went in yesterday to do another day’s imaging. In the rest of this post I will take you through some of the highlights of this monster sale.

DAY 1: SPORTING MEMORABILIA, EPHEMERA AND BOOKS

Lots 1-250 consists of sporting memorabilia of various types, including speedway, football, tennis and cricket. Here are a few highlights from that section:

Lot 208 – the signature on this scorecard is that of Zimbabwean fast bowler Heath Streak

Lot 92 – Some Tennis stills of recent vintage.

190-a — Lot 190 (two images). This was the first FA Cup final played at Wembley, just a fe weeks after the stadium was completed, and for the record Bolton Wanderers beat West Ham United to claim the silverware. This item will fetch in the high hundreds or possibly even into four figures.

Most of the books and other ephemera are fairly unremarkable, but here are a couple of highlights from that section:

DAY 2: COINS AND MILITARIA

Both these categories are already attracting attention. A few coin highlights:

464-a — A close-up of the big coin – it is not often that one sees a coin with a map on it.

Highlights from the militaria section:

716 — Lot 715 – this Naval Ensign flag is so huge that I had to spread it out on the floor of the shop and stand on a chair to get it all in shot.

716-a — The print on the edge of the flag

DAY 3: POSTCARDS AND RAILWAY PHOTOGRAPHS (PART 1 OF THE W A SHARMAN ARCHIVE)

I have imaged all of the postcards, but I am only about one-third of the way through the Railway photographs which will end this auction. Here are some highlights from the postcard section:

Lot 1040 – I have already answered one enquiry about this lot.

I have been imaging the railway photographs by using the scanner, at 400dpi. I image the photograph itself, the typed label on the reverse, and combine those to form the master image, and when I have a decent number of such images I watermark them so that unscrupulous operators cannot cheat us by printing out the images on photo quality paper. Here are some of the highlights from the watermarked images:

I finish with a couple of pictures which have extra features of interest:

Lot 1091 – a photographer’s pick – note the clever use of the arch to frame the approaching train.

In Between Auctions

Brief mentions of last week’s auctions and a longer look ahead to the March auction.

INTRODUCTION

Last week James and Sons had two auctions, a small postcard auction on Tuesday and a much larger Postal History and Ephemera Auction on Wednesday. We are now moving towards completing the catalogue for an auction on March 28th which will feature a wide variety of stuff. We have snow around at present, which is provoking the usual British display of wimpiness about rough weather – I was supposed to be attending a meeting in Swaffham this morning but it has been cancelled due to concerns about the weather. This was the view out of my door at 8:30 yesterday morning as I set off to catch the bus to work.

The view is similar today.

THE POSTCARD AUCTION

With only 134 lots going under the hammer this sale was over and done with quickly. Most of the lots found buyers.

EPHEMERA AND POSTAL HISTORY

The centrepiece of this auction was a collection of the Ecclesiastical and Political Correspondence of the Rev J Marriott. The people currently in charge of the property he bought had got wind of this collection, which meant some big money sales, because they were determined to secure as much of it as they could to reunite it with his old home. Lot 18 on its own went for over £2,000:

The stock for this auction as displayed in the shop.

The original image of lot 18. It must have taken a lot of brass neck to produce this petition.

THE UPCOMING AUCTION

Our auction on March 28th will start with some sporting memorabilia, including a framed ticket for the 1923 FA Cup Final (the first to be played at Wembley, just three weeks after that stadium was completed). For the record Bolton Wanderers beat West Ham United to win that year’s FA Cup. I do not yet have a lot number for this item, but it will be early in the auction.

A standard price for a ticket from this fixture in this condition is in the region of £800.

We have some old fishing reels and som billiards stuff as well…

Lot 23 (two images, a sample of the fishing reels)

The billiards memorabilia begin at lot 44 with the first of two scoreboards

From lot 46-58 inclusive are cues, first four lots of large numbers of loose cues, and then individual cues in cases or bags, starting with lot 50 pictured here.

Then from lot 59 to 71 we have sets of balls – note that in billiards there are two cue balls, one of which is distinguished from the other by the presence of a black spot, and the only other ball used is one red one.

We also have some bygones, of which I will feature a few that particularly caught my eye while I was imaging them:

Lot 124 – the fiugurines are made of some sort of balck ceramic, and as the second image, a close-up of two them shows, they are of very good quality.

147-a — …that can be used to store trinkets.

Other categories featured include toys, crockery, and though I have not yet had any to image, stamps. Here are some toys and crockery…

Toys in a box that has been disguised to look like a book (lot 262)

265-a — Lots 264 and 265 occupy the next four images.

The next 12 images encompass lots 301-4.

SOME EXPERIMENTS IN WATERMARKING

We have a vast collection of railway photographs, taken with a Soviet-era camera which is also in our possession and will be going under the hammer. Obviously we need to identify our images of these pictures as just that – our images – in order to stop unscrupulous types from printing the pictures out for no more than the cost of ink and the appropriate paper. Hence, I have been looking into watermarking the online pictures. I am aiming at marking the pictures in a way that will not interfere with anyone viewing them, but will prevent anyone from cheating. Here is a sample of what I have arrived at us possibly the best solution:

The positioning of the watermark does not spoil the picture, but does prevent it from being removed, since cropping the image sufficiently to eliminate it most certainly does damage the picture.

James and Sons January Catalogue Now Available Online

Announcing that the catalogue for James and Sons’ January auction is now available for viewing online and showing some of the highlights.

INTRODUCTION

The catalogue for James and Sons’ first auction of 2018, which takes place at James and Sons HQ in Fakenham on January 31st is now available for viewing online (and we expect printed copies to be ready by the end of this week). The rest of this post shows some of the highlights awaiting you, category by category.

LOTS 1-100 MILITARIA

Of course this section is dominated by lot 17, the Jutland medal group (see here for more details), but that is not the only item of interest by any means:

This Trench Mace will kick of thbe auction.

LOTS 101-248 POSTCARDS

LOTS 249-380 COINS

LOTS 381-500 BANKNOTES

LOTS 601-849 STAMPS

There are no lots in the range 501-600. I have already covered the stamps in a previous post.

LOTS 850+ SILVER AND OTHER STUFF

A mixture to end the auction…

Lot 860 – a close look athe markings on these pens will tell you why there are four of them in the set.

The next three images (lots 881, 882 and 883) are motoring badges from yesteryear.

Lot 861 – there are 24 slides in total in the wooden box…

861-a — …of which my employer wanted close-up shots of four…

861-b — …and a very close up shot of this one to feature in the printed catalogue.

We end with lot 855 (four-image gallery) – a very interesting little commemorative clock.

The Last Auction Of 2017

An account of James and Sons’ final auction of 2017.

INTRODUCTION

James and Sons last auction of 2017 took place at our own premises in central Fakenham on Wednesday, and in this post I tell the story of that sale.

THE PRELIMINARIES – TUESDAY

On Tuesday we moved the stock for auction downstairs, and with that laid out, and the smaller high-value lots in the vault until the morning I then brought down and set up such of the IT equipment as I could (we are a laptop down at present so I would be pressing my own machine into service once again) and carried out a brief test which suggested that all was in order and that there should be no issues.

THE AUCTION ITSELF

I arrived at work bright and early since not even Stagecoach can contrive to have the first bus of the day run seriously late. For those living in Norfolk and uncertain regarding buses in the holiday period services will stop early on Christmas Eve and New Years Eve, there will be no services at all on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day and a “Saturday service” will operate from the 27th to 29th of December inclusive (and since that day is actually a Saturday presumably also on the 30th).

Coffee made, emails checked and a few things gathered up to go downstairs I went back downstairs at 7:45AM. The IT setup went smoothly, and I had the slide show running before any bidders arrived (there were a few room bidders on this occasion). Here are some pictures from this period:

BANKNOTES AND COINS

The auction kicked off with some uncirculated banknotes which went for very high prices. Lot 43, a display book showing old and new format New Zealand banknotes, brought the curtain down on that segment, going for £440.

Lots 44-50 were less valuable banknotes. Then lots 51-56 were very rare coins. Unfortunately the reserves had been set too high to attract bidders, with the exception of lot 51, a 1787 gold guinea which went for £600.

The remaining lots of coins and banknotes went fairly quietly, although there were a one or two good prices achieved.

Imaging these uncirculated banknotes was a fiddle. They had to be imaged through the plastic covers they were encased in to avoid damage, and the black bakcground was needed for use in the catalogue. Additionally, since both sides were required what you see are two images joined to become one.

POSTCARDS

Lots 151-300 were postcards, mainly military themed, and while there were no headline grabbers in this section, most of them did find buyers.

STAMPS

Not quite on a par with the extraordinary happenings of November 29 (see here for more details), but much better than our stamp sections have historically been.

EPHEMERA

The last 100 lots (501-600) to go under the hammer at James and Sons in 2017 were all ephemera. I expected a fairly quiet end to the auction, and that is what eventuated. Lot 545, with a modest estimate of £20-30 went for £75.

Immediately before that an optimistic bid I placed on lot 544 met no opposition. At some stage I will probably do a whole post about this lot. This is the picture that everyone was able to see:

Here are some more pictures taken today…

November Auctions

An account of a hectic and sometimes stressful work week.

INTRODUCTION

This post covers Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. Monday and Wednesday were auction days.

MONDAY – JAMES AND SONS, FAKENHAM

This auction consisted of 455 lots, mainly stamps, with some first day covers at the end. The feature of the day was a selection of rare Chinese stamps, which it was hoped would fare well. Arriving at the shop bright and early I had a little time to myself before anyone else arrived. The IT setup and audio/video checks went smoothly, and exactly on schedule at 10:00 the first lot went under the hammer. Here are some pictures from before the auction…

Auction stock — The Chinese Stamps were still upstairs at this stage for safety.

A close up of the locomotive on the big screen (at one image per 3 seconds and almost two hours of running through 455 lots on a loop you can work out how many times each lot appeared on screen while the preauction slide show was running.

THE EARLY STAGES OF THE AUCTION

Most of the lots early in the auction were very large, and they did not attract much attention. There were hints of things to come when some of the first Chinese stamps sold well. Before we get to the main meat of the day, there is one essential stop…

LOT 169

Coming a little bit before the rare Chinese stamps were due to appear this was a Japanese railway stamp, and I got it unopposed. Here are the official images that were available online:

169 — This was the image that appeaqred on screen during the auction – scanned at 300dpi.

169-a — For those who were on the internet this close-up of the locomotive was the second image if they wanted to investigate more closely.

Here are a couple of pictures of it taken at home…

169 locomotive close up — Locomotive close up

169 locomotive - using vignette — A second close-up

THE CHINESE STAMPS

The Chinese stamps did better than any of us had dared to hope. A Chinese man living in Chelmsford had driven up tlo Fakenham (something in excess of two hours each way, though quicker than the public transport option of train to Norwich, bus/walk from Norwich station to the castle and then bus to Fakenham) to bid live, and he with some vigorous internet competition ensured that these stamps sold between them for over £10,000 (his own spend was over £9,000). Here are some the stamps at the heart of this story:

AFTER THE LORD MAYOR’S SHOW

The remainder of the auction after the last Chinese stamp had gone was anticlimactic. Once I had disconnected the IT it was time for me to switch focus for a day and a bit to…

IMAGING FOR DECEMBER

The link between these auctions and our final auction of the year, which will take place at our shop in Fakenham on December 13 is that there are some more Chinese stamps goign under the hammer. This auction will start with 50 lots of banknotes, including some very valuable uncirculated Australian and New Zealand, before proceeding to 100 lots of coins, 150 lots of military themed postcards, the stamps and some ephemera. I had already done the banknotes and one of the coins, and on the Monday afternoon I was scanning stamps.

On the Tuesday I started on the postcards, and also did some coins. Here are some pictures of what you have to look forward to…

This 1787 gold guinea starts the coin section. This image came from 2 600dpi scans, bolted together.

1-p — I also photographed the coin, and this is the one that woulkd be my front-cover image for the printed catalogue.

151 — Laying these postcards out to best advantage is a challenge as some are landscape oriented and some portrait.

While I was doing this the van was being loaded up to go Norwich, and as you will soon see the fact that I could not be spared from imaging to help with the process had consequences…

WEDNESDAY – NORWICH

I managed to get my intended bus, and arrived at Norwich bus station at about 7:30 AM (to arrive early enough to help with the setup and then run the IT a Norwich auction I need to be on the First Eastern Counties X1 which departs Lynn at 5:30). I walked down to the venue, arriving there at about 7:45, got the room unlocked, fired up my computer and checked my emails, and waited for my colleagues to arrive. Finally, at about 8:20, they did, having got stuck in heavy traffic on the route between Fakenham and Norwich. Once the van was unloaded it was time to set up. Unfortunately no one involved in loading the van had thought to include a multi-point extension lead, the camera or the microphone. The Maids Head were able to lend us most of what we needed, and I was dispatched (with cash provided) to purchase a usb attached web camera. My first port of call was Rymans, in the pedestrianised shopping area of Norwich, where I had to wait a few minutes for the shop to open. Rymans did not have the necessary, but they did have an assistant who was able to point me in the direction of Maplin on Castle Meadow, close by albeit in the opposite direction to the Maids Head, and I found precisely what we needed there (though it took me a few minutes – the place was organised rather strangely, at least to me). I was back at the hotel by 9:20, and fortunately there were no technical hitches in the IT setup. Here are some pictures from this early part of the day…

This picture was taken while walking from the bus station to the venue.

The clock in the Erpingham room, just before my colleagues arrived.

These last three pictures were taken while waiting for Rymans to open.

Weathervane and golden ball from OS Rymans

THE AUCTION

The books fared much better than I for one dared to hope, with those that sold going for good money. On the Tuesday, along with the imaging for December I had corrected a problem with some of our online images, deleting two images and renumbering about 25 others so that images and descriptions matched. Unfortunately, when we came to these lots on the day my editing had been over-ridden by someone at the ATG Media end of things and the wrong images were back in place. Lots 901 to 1,000, which concluded the auction were military themed postcard lots, and they sold incredibly well, one single lot going for £200. The sales made at this auction were a welcome bonus after Monday’s extraordinary success.

The auctiuon concluded it remained only to take down the IT and reload the van.

NORWICH

My colleague Andrew had decided that he wanted to spend some more time in Norwich and go back by bus, so before heading off for my own extra time in Norwich I showed him where to pick up the bus from. I then headed for the library, which I always like to visit when I am in Norwich and did a few other things. Here are some photographs from Norwich, some taken that day and some on the previous Thursday evening, when I was also in Norwich…

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