James and Sons First August Auction

An account of the first of James and Sons’ two August auctions.

INTRODUCTION

As I have previously mentioned the presence of a Bank Holiday at a crucial time means that James and Sons are having two auctions in August. The first took place yesterday and is the subject of this post. The second will take place on Wednesday, with setup happening on the Tuesday.

THE GOODS

For this first auction, which took place at our own premises on Norwich Street, Fakenham, the following items were going under the hammer:

Coins – lots 1-300
Stamps – lots 301-400
Postal History – lots 401-550
Cigarette Cards – lots 551-650
Postcards – lots 651-807

These lots would take somewhat in excess of five hours to sell at our usual rate of progress.

THE DAY FROM MY ANGLE

With viewing advertised as starting from 8AM it was necessary for someone to be present from that hour of the morning. My colleague Andrew would be turning up to assist with the IT setup, which left me with a choice of two options:

Get the 6:23 bus and arrive at the shop very early
Get the 7:30 bus and arrive at the shop a bit later than ideal

Being me I preferred the first option, and duly unlocked the shop at 7:20AM. I made a coffee, checked my personal emails, knocked up a poster to explain what was going on (screenshot and link to original below):
800 LOT AUCTION

The originals were A4 sized – Arial Black 64pt in bold for this interested in such matters, and I produced 3 copies, one for a window towards the town centre end of the shop, one for the window at the opposite end and one to go with the regular closed/open sign on the door which was also set to closed. Next up came transferring everything needed for the setup downstairs, and doing as much as could be done at that stage. Then, just as I decided to turn the downstairs lights on and acknowledge my presence to the world in general my colleague arrived and we were able to complete the set up, and I fetched a couple of extra chairs from behind the shop so that we had seating for five room bidders. When the auctioneer arrived I was then able to connect up both the computers we were using for the auction (one is his laptop), switch them on, log in to the correct screens in each (the operator screen on his laptop which we use as that master computer and the auctioneer screen on the other), get the slideshow going on the big screen and precheck audio and video so that even if no one at atgmedia (they are seriously understaffed) managed to do an official check I would know that they were working. At 9AM the auctioneer asked me to make a preliminary announcement in case anyone was already logged on, so I did so. A second announcement at 9:30 was heard by someone at atgmedia who confirmed that audio and video were working. Just after this our first room bidder arrived and I issued him with a bidding card (and later added his details to our client database as a coin buyer) and gave some advice about car parks (although I am a non-driver I am well acquainted with the ways of car parks in Fakenham, and my advice was sound – if he wants to park free then go to Tesco where he could park free for three hours, which as a coin specialist would be enough to see every lot of interest to him go under the hammer, if happy to pay use the car park behind our shop). At 9:50 I closed down the operator screen on the main computer, and relogged in from scratch, a regular precaution that I take. Finally, the time reached 10:00 and the start of…

THE AUCTION

The coins by and large sold well, with several bidders in the room and some action online. The stamps were quiet although some did sell, including a Chinese stamp which went for £85. The postal history also started quiet, but a large number of the later lots sold to an internet bidder. Some of the cigarette cards sold. There were some good sales among the postcards, and others which attracted no interest elsewhere were knocked down to a postcard dealer with whom the auctioneer has a regular arrangement. Each time an item sold to an online bidder whose name I did not recognize I noted their surname, paddle number and area of interest so that whatever else I have time to do in that respect actual bidders will definitely be added to the client database.

The last lot went under the hammer at about 2:30PM, and I then attended to clearing up the IT/ electronic equipment, and as my last work related action of the day sent an email written by the auctioneer to the buyer of postal history regarding some of the earlier lots in that section that he might have missed (he is based in the USA, so the first postal history lots went under the hammer quite early morning his time).

In total those items that did sell had a combined hammer price of just over £3,900 which made it a good day. We wait to see what happens on Wednesday.

PHOTOGRAPHS

I will end with some pictures that relate to this post:

Auction stock full — The whole stock for this auction in one shot

Bulky lots — The bulky lots down on the ground

PH and CC — postal history and cigarette cards

Lot 28 – sold for over double the upper estimate (3 images)

Lot 638 – I thought about bidding on this but decided not to – there is stuff on Wednesday that I want more than I want this.

This is lot 1053, which will be going under the hammer on Wednesday (5 images)

James and Sons’ July Auction

An account of James and Sons’ July auction – 1,500 lots over three days.

INTRODUCTION

On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week James and Sons had its July auction. 500 lots went under the hammer on each day.

MONDAY

This first day of the sale featured coins, banknotes, cheques, P&N covers and militaria. There were quiet moments in most categories, but also plenty of stuff sold, some of it doing very well. Here are some pictures from this first day:

Along the way, lot 377, one of the P&N covers, was knocked down to me:

376 — As an ardent user of libraries (King’s Lynn and Fakenham very regularly, Gaywood and Norwich when I am in the locality) this had particular appeal. A worthy addition to my collection.

TUESDAY

With stamps, postal history, a few postcards and first-day covers going under the hammer this was always likely to be the quietest of the three days and it was, although there were a few good sales. Here are some pictures from day 2:

WEDNESDAY

With postcards, cigarette & trade cards, ephemera, books, records and some interesting railwayana this was the day that we expected to go best, and it did. After a quietish start with the postcards, the cigarette and Liebig cards attracted in plenty of online bidders, some of the ephemera did very well, and both the large boxes of railway books found a buyer (someone who I had been in email contact with following a query about the contents of one of the boxes – I take the fact that she bought both boxes full as a definitive judgement as to the adequacy of my response!). I was also relieved because of its weight to see lot 1451 find a buyer. Lot 1379 went to me.

After a few minutes spent making the shop look more like a shop and less like an auction venue and a few more minutes spent consuming my sandwiches I finished up by adding details of those who had actually madce bids to the client database and printing out a complete list of those who had registered to bid online (196 of them on this occasion).

Here are some pictures relating to this third day:

Day3 — Most of the lots going under the hammer on day 3 were in this shot

On the bus home, although exhausted I was still alert enough to accept the opportunity to capture the ruins of Bawsey Abbey when it arose.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

Overall across the three days the total hammer price for sold items was just over £10,000, and while some of these were owned by external vendors, meaning that our gains are limited to the lotting fees, vendors commission and buyers premium, many were from our own stock. At the end of August we will be having auctions at our shop and also at Fakenham Racecourse.

Preparing for James and Sons’ July Auction

An account of the PR work I have done for James and Sons upcoming auction.

INTRODUCTION

In amongst polishing off the last of the imaging (I only actually got some lots needing imaging this morning!) for next week’s auction (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, all three days at our shop), resolving queries and such like I have also put out a number of ‘Auction Alert’ emails and a couple of press releases (I did a general one on Tuesday, and then my boss wanted something specifically about some Norfolk postcards today, hence two). I am going to produce screenshots of all the emails and press releases, accompanied by links to original documents, and all images therein.

THE PRESS RELEASES

On Tuesday I put out a general press release to local and regional media as follows:

THREE DAY FAKENHAM AUCTION FEATURES MANY EXCELLENT ITEMS

Then today I was required to come about with something about the Norfolk postcards:

NORFOLK POSTCARDS A FEATURE OF JAMES AND SONS UPCOMING THREE DAY AUCTION

THE EMAIL ALERTS

Given the item that was on the front cover of the printed catalogue, my first email alert went out to buyers of banknotes:

CONFEDERATE BANKNOTES TO GO UNDER THE HAMMER AT FAKENHAM AUCTION

Then I sent one out to buyers of cigarette and trade cards:

CIGARETTE AND TRADE CARDS A FEATURE OF OUR UPCOMING AUCTION

I also sent out a specific email to postcard buyers, but do not have that document at my disposal, so next comes the one I sent to stamp buyers:

STAMPS A MAJOR FEATURE OF JAMES JULY AUCTION

Finally, today I sent out an email alert to buyers of railwayana:

RAILWAYANA A FEATURE OF JAMES UPCOMING AUCTION

I finish this post with the full gallery for lot 1452, which featured in the composite image in the first press release:

James and Sons July Auction Catalogue

James and Sons July auction catalogue is now ready…

INTRODUCTION

Yesterday the catalogue for James and Sons July auction (24th – 26th, all three days at our premises on Fakenham town centre) was uploaded to the-saleroom and despatched to the printer. Before moving on I ask readers to note that some of the images in this post have been presented in ’tiled mosaic’ form – a left click on your mouse/ single finger push on your control pad on one of the images will open a gallery showing you the images at full size.

TUESDAY

Between locating images of stuff that had already been imaged and imaging other stuff I made significant progress, although the amount that had not been done was still greater than the amount that had been done. Among the new images I created were those of some Confederacy bank notes, including the item selected to be on the front cover of the catalogue:

Images of this and the other banknotes of ithe same type are created using the scanner (200dpi only for these). Here are some more of these banknotes:

Having shown the scanner at work, here are some photos to finish this section, the full gallery of lot 1479:

THURSDAY

Most of the images on this day were transferred, but there were a few new ones, including lot 405 and some lots in the low 1,000s:

This little lot intrigued me.

A few lots of cat themed covers, including some with coins.

FRIDAY

I started this day by imaging some lots for the cover:

Of the rest of the stuff I imaged yesterday the most interesting lots were some police helmets:

LOOKING AHEAD

While there remains some imaging to do for this auction, and stuff for August will sloon be ready for imaging I will also have to put out various auction alerts and press releases next week. I will definitely be contacting buyers of banknotes, cigarette cards, railwayana, stamps and postcards. The railwayana email will feature lot 1451:

If I have scope (i.e. have not reached an email sending limit) I will also send out an email to militaria buyers. Our best item in this category this month is a camera used by the Luftwaffe:

Back to the Present: James and Sons June Auction

An account of James and Sons’ June auction.

INTRODUCTION

Having completed my series of posts about Scotland, I am now returning to the present with an account of James and Sons’ June Auction, which happened earlier this week.

THE AUCTION SCHEDULE

To set the scene for the rest of this post, the auction was arranged to run in two parts. Lots 1-600 went under the hammer at our own premises in central Fakenham on Monday June 26th, while lots 701-1300 were auctioned at Fakenham Racecourse on Wednesday June 28th. The Tuesday was set aside for getting things set up down at the racecourse, since experience had taught us that combining this with a day of auctioning at the shop was not a goer.

MONDAY 26TH – NORWICH STREET

The set up was accomplished fairly straightforwardly, and the sound and video checks went swiftly and easily. The auction got under way with 100 cigarette card lots, then 100 postcard lots, then some general ephemera, some numismatic and philatelic covers and ending with the stamps. The day started quietly, with the cigarette cards attracting very little interest and the postcards not much. It was the numismatic and philatelic covers that provided the only consistent sales of the day.

TUESDAY 27TH – SETUP DAY

We had loaded the first van load of stuff for the racecourse at the end of the previous week, so I headed straight from the bus to the racecourse to help unload that. This done and some stuff unloaded from the boss’s car it was back to the shop to load up the van for the second time. This van load then went to the racecourse without me, as I would be of more use working at the shop than down there. Then one of my colleagues was left alone at the racecourse and so I walked back down there to minimise the period for which this situation continued (the person who could drive the van was going to be at the shop for half an hour at least, and I could walk it in much less time than that). Finally, after a few final things had been brought down to the racecourse I got a lift back to the shop. At the end of the day I locked the shop, handed my key to a colleague who would need it on the morrow and headed home. Here are some pictures from the setup.

I was at the racecourse before my colleague arrived with a key, and this wagtail caught my eye while I was waiting.

Toys1 — We had a lot of toys in this auction.

WEDNESDAY JUNE 28TH –
THE RACECOURSE

This was a very tiring day. It was raining heavily most of the time, including for the entire duration of the walk from Fakenham town centre to the racecourse in the morning.

We had been assured by the racecourse that they now had working wifi, but this proved to be an optimistic assessment and we had to use a wired connection, which dropped out four times in the course of the day (fortunately never for very long).

Pre-auction — This was the scene immediately after I had carried out audio and video checks, as viewed from my seat.

The early lots passed quietly, but then with lot 633 the first tranch of toy lots went under the hammer, and the internet bidders got busy, with three figure prices the rule rather than the exception. The ‘Manod’ steam toys later on also sold spectacularly well. After a few books and related stuff went under the hammer it was time for a few jewellery lots, which also sold well. Then it was into the coins, which started with some proof sets which fetched remarkable prices.

LOT 933: THE BEST LAID PLANS OF
MICE AND MEN GANG AFT AGLEY

When you see the image gallery for this lot you will realise why I had had my sights on it to the exclusion of all else in this auction:

Unfortunately from a personal point of view I had competition, and although I bid up to £40, when that final bid of mine was topped I conceded defeat.

LOT 935: ROMAN STYLE COINS

Although these were not the genuine article I decided that at next to nothing they were worth securing as a tiny consolation for the disappointment of a few moments earlier.

935-a — …which is a combination of this…

935 - obverse — The first of two photos taken this morning.

The coins continued to sell well. After the coins it was time for some militaria. Lot 1051 fetched a good price, and then came lot 1052 fetching the only four figure price of the auction.

1052-a — Both faces of the medal, assembled from the close-ups below.

1052-d — Three images which combined as here show the rim in full detail (important as it is generally the rim that people look at when checking the authenticity of a medal – and this is definitely NOT done with a modern engraving machine – I have seen enough such to know whereof I write!)

1052 composite — This combination of the whole lot and all the close ups was the feature image in an alert sent out to militaria buyers (click the link below to view it in full).

JAMES AUCTION ALERT (Militaria)

The auction finished with 100 miscellaneous lots, which went fairly quietly, although even these attracted some interest. After Monday we had needed Wednesday to be a successful day, and it was.

For us there was still the clearing up to be done, but even that was accomplished sufficiently swiftly that I was able to get the 16:37 bus home. This departed late, but for an acceptable reason – the driver was resolving a situation created by another driver who was guilty of dereliction of duty – he had arrived from Wells, let off passengers, switched his destination to “Sorry Not In Service” and had then dashed off without picking up passengers. Stagecoach track their buses, and identified that this one had been parked up just outside Fakenham, and the rogue driver who by his selfishness had let down about 10 passengers was ordered back into service. This same thing had happened the previous day according to the waiting passengers except that he had got away with it, the passengers getting the later bus.

James and Sons’ May Auction

An account of James and Sons’ May Auction.

INTRODUCTION

This auction was a three-day affair, on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. All three days were at our premises, 5 Norwich Street, Fakenham. Our next auction will also be over a three-day period, but there will be no selling on the second day, as the third day will be at Fakenham Racecourse and we will be setting things up down there.

MONDAY

The setup was accomplished with no problem and the first item went under the hammer at 10AM as intended. The auction started with coins which fared reasonably well, cheques which did not, some interesting ephemera which attracted some attention, and some joint numismatic/ philatelic items which fared well. The militaria which concluded day 1’s action started very quietly but picked up again later. Here are some pictures from this day…

P1000034 — The big screen display for people who turned up at the venue.

Lot 359, one of those joint numismatic/ philatelic items, came my way for £8. I will be going into more detail about it in a future post, but here is the shot that appeared on our slideshow…

In between moving stuff for day 2 down into the shop ready for the morrow, consuming my sandwiches and other little bits I also did some work on our next auction. Here are some pictures of items that will be going under the hammer at the end of June…

TUESDAY

This was the quietest of the three days. It featured stamps, postal history and first-day covers. There were no room bidders, and the internet bidders did not bestir themselves and the second half of the day. However, eventually some items did sell, although it was a hugely unsuccessful day. Here are some shots taken before proceedings got underway…

There was an addition to the routine today – three large items that feature in our next auction needed to be offloaded into the shop, photographed and given lot numbers. They are now lots 791, 792 and 793 in our June auction – two dolls houses and a rocking horse:

Lot 791 – the thatched cottage version of a dolls house

792-a — Lot 792 – a more modern style version of a dolls house.

Lot 793 a rocking horse, and not just any rocking horse…

After attending to this and to bringing down the lots for the morrow I had time for some more work on the June auction…

WEDNESDAY

This final day of our sale featured postcards, cigarette & trade cards, Liebig picture cards and books to end the auction. We needed a good day, and we got one. All else was overshadowed by three postcards, lots 1038, 1039 and 1040. These were early 20th century Real Photographic (RP) cards featuring football matches. 1038 and 1039 went for £495 and £450 respectively, while lot 1040 sold for no less than £900. Most of the rest of the postcards found buyers (one postcard, an RP featuring the 1910 visit of Halley’s Comet sold to none other than science writer Ben Goldacre), the cigarette cards had some successes, and the Liebig cards fared pretty well. The books did what ordinary books usually do at auction. Here are some pictures I took early that morning:

P1000068 — I redid this one after seeing a few of the less huge lots that I had omitted to bring down (see third pic). Although the dolls house was not in this sale no place had as yet been found for it.

Lot 1107 (about which much more later) went to me. Going into this auction I had a couple of other items besides the two I actually bought (for £8 each) mentally filed as possibles, but found myself obliged to ignore them since my old camera (after somewhat in excess of 80,000 pictures) had conked out, necessitating a replacement which in turn meant that I could not entertain mere ‘possibles’ at this stage. Here is the image that appeared in our slideshow:

The auction concluded, wiring tidied up and internet bidders list printed out I finished my working week by doing some more work on the June auction. Here are some of the items I imaged…

Railway Postcards and an ‘Autism Roundel’

Showcasing some railway themed postcards I have recently acquired and unveiling a personalised roundel.

INTRODUCTION

Hello and welcome to this post which focuses on some postcards I have recently acquired very cheaply at auction.

THE RAILWAY POSTCARDS

I won two lots of railway postcards at James and Sons’ last auction. The first of these lots to end up in my possession was…

LOT 1015: FOUR BLACK AND WHITE CARDS

Three of these cards were of London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) locomotives while the fourth was of a railway station, tentatively identified in the catalogue as Ardley. Further research on my part revealed that the station is in point of fact Ardlui, a tiny dot on the map near the northern end of Loch Lomond. Here are some pictures of the cards:

While I was pleased to acquire these cards, especially at that price, the lot that meant most to me was…

LOT 1017 – TEN COLOUR CARDS
OF THE FFESTINIOG RAILWAY

These cards had a particular resonance because I have travelled on this railway many years ago. It is a very narrow (1 ft 11in) gauge heritage railway which runs to about 40 miles.

Here is a promotional video from the official website of the Ffestiniog Railway:

Before I show the postcards, here is a link to the Wikipedia page for the Ffestiniog Railway.

Now for those postcards, starting with the official image that everyone saw:

Now here are the pictures of these cards taken in my own home:

Ffestiniog Railway — All ten postcards in one shot.

Ffestiniog Railway 7-10 — Postcards 7-10

Ffestiniog Railway I1 — Individual pictures of each postcard…

THE AUTISM ROUNDEL

This is based on an autistic spectrum symbol that I found out about courtesy of Laina at thesilentwaveblog (see this post for more details). I was thinking about coming up with a suitable logo for my London transport themed website, and considered the possibility of using the rainbow infinity as the disk part of the famous London Underground roundel. If I decide to go with it, this is what my personalised roundel looks like:

Shares and Sharing

A (very brief) case study on inspiration, some autism related stuff and stuff about sharing, and some of my own photographs – read, enjoy and feel free to share so long as you do so in the right kind of way!

INTRODUCTION

I have a number of things to share today (although today’s blogging won’t quite be on the epic scale of Saturday’s), and with one significant exception for this post I am concentrating on autism related stuff.

A CASE STUDY ON INSPIRATION

One of the treats awaiting me in my inbox this morning was a post on estersblog about Greenwich. Seeing her pictures of Greenwich inspired to me to created a post on my London transport themed website about Greenwich. The picture below is one of Ester’s, and links to her post about Greenwich:

As well as the picture that I am using as to link to the post I was inspired to create, I have a screenshot from that post below it:

1001-b — This is part of the image gallery I created for lot 1,001 in James and Sons’ April auction.

SHARING AND COMMENTING

I came across an excellent post about sharing and commenting on thesilentwaveblog. Please read this post in full by clicking on thesilentwave graphic below:

A NEW FIND – THE AUTISTIC ACADEMIC

I came across this blog yesterday. The post that caught my attention was titled “Ten Things Autistic Kids Pick Up Faster, Better, and With Less Trauma If They Aren’t Bullied Into Learning Them” and can be read in full by clicking the screenshot below. The PDF of the article to which this piece was responding can still be viewed, although the original article has been taken down (nb – once you have posted something anywhere on the net it is exceedingly hard to remove it, so best to think before you post so you have no need to worry aboiut trying to remove it!).

ANOTHER NEW FIND –
THE UNABASHED AUTIST

As a sample of this blogger I offer you a piece title “This Is Your Solution – To Ruin The Bike?”, which can be accessed by clicking the Unabashed Autist graphic below:

PHOTOGRAPHS

Here are some photographs from yesterday to end this post:

station — We start with some public transport themed pictures (five in total)

displayboards — This display is not as prominent within the station building as it should be.

Bus Station — From the train station to the bus station (while this is not quite a true transport interchange, the distance is only about 200 metres)

Blackbird in branches — Some of these pictures were taken yesterday morning, the others yesterday afternoon after my mother had dropped me back in King’s Lynn (near the cemetery, which made the best walking route home obvious – note for those new to this site best in this context does not necessarily mean shortest).

A Very Successful Three Day Auction

An account of James and Sons auction, which took place on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week.

INTRODUCTION

On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week James and Sons had its second ever three day auction. This one had the additional twist that two different venues were being used, our own premises in Fakenham on days 1 and 2 and the Maids Head Hotel, Norwich on day 3.

DAY 1: FAKENHAM

I caught the 7:30 bus from Lynn to Fakenham, thus arriving at James and Sons at just before 8:30AM (this bus doubles as a school bus, so follows a more circuitous route from Lynn to Fakenham than the usual X29 route and therefore takes 15 minutes longer to make the journey than a regular bus). Thus I was able to get the setup done in plenty of time, and the auction got underway at the appointed hour of 10AM. On this day stamps, postal history and first day covers were being sold. There were a couple of room bidders, and thankfully large numbers of online bidders (over 250 by the end of day 3). Although there were not many things going for big amounts of money a lot of stuff did sell, and the auction had started well. I have no pictures from day 1 of this auction, but here are some images of items that will be going under the hammer in our March auction, which will be on the 27th, 28th and 29th of that month.

1031-a — These first two pictures of lot 1031 in the March auction, which has an interesting story. This item is a grass sledge, designed and built by a craftsman in Sussex for use on the Downs.

394 — The remaining images here are cigarette cards photographed after day 1 of the auction finished and before I went home.

DAY 2: FAKENHAM

The routine was the same as on day 1, but the items under the hammer were different. This day featured photographs, postcards, a few books, records, ephemera, Liebig cards, cigarette cards, cheques and coin first day covers. For most of the day there was no one present at the venue who was not a James and Sons employee, but the internet was very lively for much of the time. I had two moments of good fortune. The first featured…

LOT 864

Here are the official images of this lot:

My opening bid of £10 was unopposed, and here are the photographs I took this morning showing the entire booklet in all its glory:

About 10 minutes later we got to…

LOT 891

Here is the image gallery for this lot:

My opening bid of £8 again went uncontested, and here is a much more comprehensive set of pictures of this lot…

ttrh — We start with front and back images of the cards in sets of six (the complete set contains 30)

ttrh-b — Then we have close ups of some of the more interesting cards – this one is Richard Trevithick’s Pen-y-Darren (that y is pronounced roughly as a “uh” sound), the first commercially operated steam locomotive ever. Steam engine technology predates this by approximately 1800 years – Heron of Alexandria designed a steam operated device for opening temple doors.

ttrh-d — The most famous of all the very early locos – Stephenson’s rocket.

ttrh-f — This Metropolitan Railway locomotive was designed specifically for operating in tunnels.

ttrh-p — Luxury travel on the Brighton Belle

ttrh-t — I travelled on this stock when I visited Scotland in 1993.

ttrh-u — The only other stock in this set of 30 that I have travelled on, the legendary Intercity 125.

Overall this was a better day than we had expected – there were only a few quiet spots.

DAY 3: NORWICH

The fact that we were in Norwich for the final day of this auction meant that the stuff had to be loaded up to be transported over there, which was done at the end of day 2. It also meant that since I was going to have be in Norwich earlier than I could get there using the X29 that I claimed £5.50 in excess travel expenses as the cost of travelling there on the First Eastern Counties X1 is £11 as opposed to £5.50 if I can use the Stagecoach X29 route.

As intended I left my flat at 5:15AM and was on the 5:30 bus from King’s Lynn to Norwich, arriving at the venue at 7:30. I had my laptop with me because James and Sons were one laptop short (two working machines when we needed three). The setup was just about completed before the first viewers started turning up, and there were no issues of any sort.

Here are some photos from that early period:

dscn3894 — This item sold for a fair amount of money.

dscn3895 — The rostrum – the black machine belongs to my employer, and we ran the operator screen (my responsibility) from it, while the white machine is mine, and we ran the auctioneer screen from that.

dscn3899 — Only a few of these big stamp lots sold, although both helmets found buyers.

dscn3903 — A distant view of the main display area, and visible through the window, the wall of the Cathedral Close.

THE FIRST PART OF THE SALE – COINS & BANKNOTES

There were no headline making prices, but most of these lots sold, some doing very well. We had decided to have a 15 minute break after lot 1,300 (we started the day at lot 1,000). Just before the end of the session we came to some commemorative medallions from the Gigantic Wheel, which was a feature of Earls Court between 1897 and 1906. The first was lot 1,286, which I ignored as being beyond my means. Lot 1287 however, which was only a little inferior in quality was cheaper, and my bid of £10 duly secured it. Here for comparative purposes are first the official images, scanned at 600 dpi and brightened up a bit, and then the two photographs I took today:

1287 — For auction purposes I scan each face and then produce a combined image as well as c,lose ups of each face

ecgw-a — The photographs from earlier today.

ecgw-b — For the record, these medallions are approximately the same size as a Queen Victoria penny.

THE SECOND PART: MILITARIA AND STAMPS

The Militaria sold well. A chess set with German markings achieved barely credible £170. Here is the official image gallery:

Plenty of other things did well as well. The stamps predictably enough did not fare very well, but everything else had done enough that the auction was an unequivocal success.

AFTER THE SALE

I had considered staying on in Norwich to attend a Green Party public meeting at which Richard Murphy would be speaking, but in the end after three demanding days I was too tired to even contemplate not being home until 11PM which is what that would have meant, and so after a visit to Norwich Millennium Library I took the bus home, arriving back in my flat just after 6PM.

Four Days

An account of the ,last four days, some pictures, some links, and a special science and nature section.

INTRODUCTION

This post, which comes with plenty of pictures and some cracking links, covers what I have been doing over the course of Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Each of these days was very different in character from its predecessor. The links will be in two parts, a couple appearing between Wednesday and Thursday, and the remainder florming a special science and nature section at the end of the post.

TUESDAY

A day at James and Sons getting as many images done as possible before the catalogue for our next auction went online (here, for those who would like to see it). This day went fairly quietly and without any major incidents. Here are some general pictures…

My second set of images for this day consists of coins and small medallions…

WEDNESDAY

On Wednesday I started the day by typing up the minutes from NAS West Norfolk’s last committee meeting (as branch secretary this is one of my regular tasks). The in the afternoon I attended a meeting of the West Norfolk Disability Forum, which came with a little extra pressure as the branch chair of NAS West Norfolk could not arrange childcare which left me as NAS West Norfolk’s sole representative at the meeting. I found the meeting disappointing – many things talked about but little sign of any real progress having been made.

INTERLUDE – A COUPLE OF LINKS

Most of my links will feature at the end of this post, but there are two I choose to share here to break things up a bit:

AUTISM AWARENESS CUP 2017

Following the success of last year’s inaugural Autism Awareness Cup, a second event is being staged this year, on June 4th at Ingoldisthorpe Social Club between 12 and 5PM. A facebook page for this event has been launched – please click the graphic below to visit, and if you are on facebook, like the page:

HEATHER HASTIE ON A TELEVANGELIST

Heather Hastie’s blog is always worth reading, and this post, about a chap by the name of Jim Bakker, is no exception.

THURSDAY – SPARKS FLY

I had just started work on Thursday morning when I looked at my computer and noticed that the power had gone (I was taking photographs, so all the computer was on ready for editing them later, I was not yet using it). It soon transpired that none of the computers or heaters had power (the lights being on a different circuit did). One of my colleagues tested a particular plug socket that was most likely to have caused the problem, and it proved right (fortunately although shaken he was not seriously hurt, though we were all worried at the time). We then used a long extension lead to connect to the only spare socket available, which brought things to life for a few moments, before (as it transpired), the extension lead proved unable to cope with the amount of power it was having to transmit.

dscn9401 — The plug socket that started it all after it had been proved to be faulty.

With no possibility of using the computers that day, the two people who were committed to remaining at work there for the day (the other person directly involved in the drama went back to working at his computer repair business) took as many photographs as possible, and it being fiendishly cold without any source of heat, gained permission to lock up a bit early. It was also in the course of this day that I took custody of a key to the shop.

Although editing and uploading them was for obvious reasons my first work activity of Friday, here are some pictures from Thursday…

This is lot 650, and the first of its kind I have ever seen – as a collection of cheese spread labels (not even real cheese!)

A collection of 15 pictures if old London – lot 706

For the Shakespearians among you, lot 725

896 — Match boxes, some whole and some in parts.

897 — This set and the next were kin old cigar boxes.

FRIDAY – CALM AFTER THE STORM

I arrived at work on Friday morning and was delighted to see that the electrician was just finishing up, and that discussion about having a serious look at the electrics at some lpoint in the future were taking place (much needed – looking back the only real surprise about Thursday’s incident was that it had taken so long for it to happen).

Nevertheless, the amount of new work I accomplished on Friday was somewhat reduced, first by having to finish Thursday’s work, then by having to a bulk upload of previously created images due to mishap oin the original uploading process which meant that most of the last thousand lots were showing with no images and finally by having to make a trip to the post office, where it took the person handling our parcels 40 minutes to do the job (at least three times as long as it should have). Here are some of the new images that I did mange to create and upload…

A SCIENCE AND NATURE SPECIAL

We start with two sides of a story that may or may not be one of the most significant achievements in science history – if the experiment can be successfully duplicated a Nobel prize is a certainty. Here, courtesy of www.independent.co.uk comes…

THE PRODUCTION OF METALLIC HYDROGEN?

First of all, the story of the claimed discovery, complete with video footage:

Please click the link below to read (and below that is the video)…

THE STORY

//players.brightcove.net/624246174001/82f79524-152c-485f-bcb0-09197a216c87_default/index.html?videoId=5298617758001For the other side of the story, raising questions about the conduct of the experiment and the speed with which this has gone to press click the link below:

The Counter Story

This then is still to be resolved, unlike the subject matter of my next link, which deals with…

THE EXTINCTION OF THE DINOSAURS

I have already shared a link to this piece, from space.com, but I consider it worth sharing again. To read this fascinating piece please click the graphic below:

Still dealing in the spectacular, we come to a post about…

THE NORTHERN LIGHTS

The science blog rationalisingtheuniverse has produced a post about this phenomenon which you can read by clicking on the graphic below:

We finish with links to two pieces on a theme that is always relevant and still does not the kind of coverage it should…

PROTECTING NATURE

First in this section, a video with an accompanying petition, regarding a serious threat tko wildlife in Cromarty:

I end this post with a link to a 38 Degrees campaign, which I encourage you all to look at:

	Somerset Top –… on Two Very Different Matche…
	England Win Series A… on England in Command at Lor…
	A Comprehensive Win… on England’s Innings Victor…
	Phoenix Flop –… on Phoenix Reduced to Ashes
	Nikolas Perčić on A Succession of Blunders

INTRODUCTION

THE GOODS

THE DAY FROM MY ANGLE

THE AUCTION

PHOTOGRAPHS

INTRODUCTION

MONDAY

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY

CLOSING THOUGHTS

INTRODUCTION

THE PRESS RELEASES

THE EMAIL ALERTS

INTRODUCTION

TUESDAY

THURSDAY

FRIDAY

LOOKING AHEAD

INTRODUCTION

THE AUCTION SCHEDULE

MONDAY 26TH – NORWICH STREET

TUESDAY 27TH – SETUP DAY

WEDNESDAY JUNE 28TH – THE RACECOURSE

LOT 933: THE BEST LAID PLANS OF MICE AND MEN GANG AFT AGLEY

LOT 935: ROMAN STYLE COINS

INTRODUCTION

MONDAY

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY

INTRODUCTION

THE RAILWAY POSTCARDS

LOT 1015: FOUR BLACK AND WHITE CARDS

LOT 1017 – TEN COLOUR CARDS OF THE FFESTINIOG RAILWAY

THE AUTISM ROUNDEL

INTRODUCTION

A CASE STUDY ON INSPIRATION

SHARING AND COMMENTING

A NEW FIND – THE AUTISTIC ACADEMIC

ANOTHER NEW FIND – THE UNABASHED AUTIST

PHOTOGRAPHS

INTRODUCTION

DAY 1: FAKENHAM

DAY 2: FAKENHAM

LOT 864

LOT 891

DAY 3: NORWICH

THE FIRST PART OF THE SALE – COINS & BANKNOTES

THE SECOND PART: MILITARIA AND STAMPS

AFTER THE SALE

INTRODUCTION

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY

INTERLUDE – A COUPLE OF LINKS

AUTISM AWARENESS CUP 2017

HEATHER HASTIE ON A TELEVANGELIST

THURSDAY – SPARKS FLY

FRIDAY – CALM AFTER THE STORM

A SCIENCE AND NATURE SPECIAL

THE PRODUCTION OF METALLIC HYDROGEN?

THE EXTINCTION OF THE DINOSAURS

THE NORTHERN LIGHTS

PROTECTING NATURE

WEDNESDAY JUNE 28TH –
THE RACECOURSE

LOT 933: THE BEST LAID PLANS OF
MICE AND MEN GANG AFT AGLEY

LOT 1017 – TEN COLOUR CARDS
OF THE FFESTINIOG RAILWAY

ANOTHER NEW FIND –
THE UNABASHED AUTIST