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…

The Journey To Penzance

An account of the journey to Penzance, setting the scene for my next post, about Penzance itself.

INTRODUCTION

This is continuing my account of my visit to Cornwall. We have reached Saturday, which for me featured a trip to England’s westernmost commercial railway station (note England not Britain – Arisaig on the Glasgow-Mallaig line in Scotland is further west), Penzance. The closest station in time terms to my parent’s new home is St Germans, and that is where my train journey started.

ST GERMANS

St Germans is completely unstaffed, and therefore, since there is no one to maintain it, has no ticket machines either. Tickets are purchased from the conductor once you are on the train. You are only allowed to do this at unstaffed stations – boarding without a ticket at a station where you can purchase one renders you liable to a penalty fare of £20 (I heard another passenger who had done this escaping with a warning not to do it again).

I had a bit of time at St Germans (given that the next train to call at St Germans was two hours later this was indubitably the sensible position to be in. Here are some photographs from the station…

www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk

The ticket issued by the onboard conductor is much bigger than a standard train ticket.

THE JOURNEY TO PENZANCE

Taking pictures through the windows of a moving train is not especially easy, although I did at least have a window seat for the entire journey, so was never shooting across people. After leaving St Germans the train called at Liskeard (change for the Looe branch line), Bodmin Parkway, Lostwithiel (although the name might suggets otherwise as far as I am aware no elves live here!), Par (trains to Newquay depart from here), St Austell, Truro (Falmouth services diverge here), Redruth, Camborne, Hayle, St Erth (branch line to St Ives from here) and Penzance. Here are the pictures from this journey…

PENZANCE STATION

These pictures were taken both on arrival at Penzance, and towards the end of my time in Penzance.

Tiles, Penzance — This was my first effort at capturing this tile picture…

Tile Picture — …and this, later in the day, was my second and final effort.

Downham Market

A photographic account of Downham Market, an old market town in Norfolk.

INTRODUCTION

As those of you who read the post I put up earlier today will know I spent part of Saturday in the town of Downham Market. These post showcases everything I saw there other than the Town Hall.

THE STATION

This was my first visit to Downham Market, as opposed to passing through the station en route to further afield destinations. The pictures here were taken at two distinct periods, in the morning immediately post arrival, and in the afternoon when I had rather more time to kill than I would have wished. The only way across the tracks at Downham Market is by way of a level crossing, and the train from London to King’s Lynn arrives just before the one going the other way. The crossing gates close a couple of minutes before the King’s Lynn train arrives and stay closed until the London train has departed, which means that if you are looking to catch the King’s Lynn train, which departs from the far platform from the town centre and the crossing gates close you have missed it, and such was my fate on Saturday. For those affected this also explains both my later than usual arrival at the venue for Musical Keys and the fact that I was a tad breathless when I got there – I had stepped off a train at 15:20 at King’s Lynn and walked straight out to the Scout Hut in something of a hurry.

Station building — The station building – very impressive, and I was to discover quite typical of 19th century Downham Market buildings in the use of Carr (the brown coloured stone).

Local Map — A handy little map for working out one’s route from the station.

Terrace — I reckon (though I am opne to correction) that this little terrace was built to accommodate railway workers.

Bennett & Son — This building is visible from the station platform.

THE REST OF DOWNHAM MARKET

I start with two pictures to set the scene, a huge pictorial map which can be seen in the town centre and the information board about the railway:

The ‘Downham’ part of Downham Market comes from Anglo-Saxon (afterall, we are in the lands of the North Folk of the East Angles) and literally means ‘homestead on a hill’, and indeed the market town that grew up around that homestead (it has been a market town since Anglo-Saxon times) is slightly elevated from the surrounding countryside, which in Norfolk constitutes being on a hill! These photos are presented in the order in which they were taken.

Info signs — There will be more about Civray in the next section.

CIVRAY

I realised that there could be only one explanation for a signpost in cengtral Downham Market giving the distance to the town of Civray, namely that the two towns are twinned. Civray for the record is pretty much exactly halfway between Poitiers and Angouleme, due east of La Rochelle. I include a map as well as a close up of the sign.

Scotland – Homeward Bound: Lochluichart to Inverness

Continuing the account of the homeward journey, taking the story up to Inverness (Inbhir Nis).

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the next post in my series about my holiday in Scotland. This post continues the story of the journey home picking up where it’s predecessor left off at Lochluichart.

LOCHLUICHART TO INVERNESS

This part of the journey is not as impressive as its predecessor, but I did still get some good pictures.

Scotland – Wednesday Part 1: Plockton

The latest post ion my series about my Scottish Holiday, dealing with Plockton.

INTRODUCTION

We have reached the Wednesday in my series of posts about my holiday in Scotland, which astute readers will recall was the day of my birthday. For previous posts in this series please click here. There will be a number of posts about this day as we saw a lot of fantastic scenery.

PLOCKTON

Our first port of call was Plockton, where were hoping to book a table at the Plockton Inn (it is in the Good Food Guide). There were also a few other things to see in Plockton. Here are some early pictures:

We were lucky at the Inn – they did have a table, at 6PM, so we knew when we had to be back in Plockton. This sorted, it was time to explore Plockton:

Plockton Hotel — This ‘stone-look’ frontage is a fail as far I as am concerned.

Black and White Railway Cigarette Cards

A whistle-stop tour of some railway themed cigarette cards.

INTRODUCTION

This post is dedicated to the last of four lots that fell my way at James and Sons’ April auction (all exceedingly cheap – uncontested minimum bids in each case), lot 1186 which was a stout booklet of railway themed cigarette cards. This set dates from 1938.

PAGE BY PAGE THROUGH THE BOOK

DSCN6476 — I have organised these images showing pictures first and then the text on the reverse for each page, except for a couple where I forgot to photograph the text.

SOME CLOSE UPS

I also took some close ups of particular cards that caught my fancy.

CLOSE UP 1: LONDON UNDERGROUND STOCK

This prototype was not adopted on a large scale – the 1938 stock that came into service just after these cards were produced did not have the frontage that this stock did (I travelled on 1938 stock in my childhood, since the last specimens were only withdrawn from service in 1985, and even after that a few were used to run services on the Isle of Wight Railway). My estimate from the picture is that this particular train was somewhere near Southgate when it was photographed. There is a carriage of 1938 stock on display in the London Transport Museum, Covent Garden.

CLOSE UP 2: A LONDON UNDERGROUND SIGNAL ROOM

Even in 1938 most signals on London Underground were automatically triggered by trains, but there is human input as well…

CLOSE UP 3: TWO TRAINS IN ONE

The sheer quirkiness of this appealed to me:

CLOSE UP 4: THE FFESTINIOG RAILWAY

This relates to my previous post. You will notice that the spelling on the cards is ‘Festiniog’. This is a reflection of anti-Welsh prejudice at the time (the Ff beginning is a Welsh language formation). For the low-down on today’s Ffestiniog Railway please visit their website.

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:

Autism Acceptance Month

Setting the scene for Autism Acceptance Month, explaining why the original title, Autism Awareness Month is no longer acceptable. Numerous links and photographs.

INTRODUCTION

This post is by way of setting the stage for April, which starts tomorrow after all. As well as my own stuff this contains links from other autism related sources. The title of the post begs a question…

WHY NOT AUTISM AWARENESS MONTH?

There are two parts to the answer to this question:

The original title is tainted by its associations. A very large organisation which I shall not name (think blue jigsaw pieces though) which presents itself as an autism charity but should be treated as a hate group uses this name. Although I am separated from this organisation by the width of the Atlantic Ocean I am a thoroughgoing internationalist and therefore stand in solidarity with autistic folk across the pond and refuse to use the tainted title.
Even aside from being tainted the title is not fit for purpose. Awareness by itself means precisely nothing. I have created a simple graphic showing how things needs to progress from the basic starting point of awareness:

It is from that final goal of acceptance that the alternative title, coined across the Atlantic for reasons I have already stated, and gratefully adopted by me, comes. I have chosen white text against a purple background for my graphic because purple is the colour used by the National Autistic Society (NAS), and I am branch secretary of NAS West Norfolk.

SOME AUTISM RELATED LINKS

I start with this section with a link to a very detailed listing of blogs by people who are #actuallyautistic. To view this valuable resource in full please click on the screenshot below:

Next up is a piece from Eclectic Autistic titled “Wrong Model, Wrong Research”. This piece attacks what the author calls our society pathologizing difference and I recommend that you read it, which you can do by clicking on the title above.

Now we come to one of the pieces that inspired this post. It was created my mamautistic, and has the title “Being Autistic is Everything – Autistic Acceptance” and you can access it by clicking the image below.

Next we come to a good news story from the Irish Times. Shannon Airport has become the first airport in the world to open a sensory room for the benefit of autistic passengers. For the full story click on the graphic below which is taken from it.

We now come to a special subsection of this sharing section of the post…

A SILENTWAVE SMORGASBORD

The silentwaveblog has played a major role in inspiring this post, with one post in particular, the last of the three I shall be sharing, virtually setting the creation of this post in motion.

This piece, titled “The Double Edged Sword of Labels in the Autistic World”, is quite simply the best analysis of the rights and wrongs of labelling that I have ever come across. It also ends with a splendid vision of a future that may just be within reach. To read in full please click on the image below.
Next we have “The problem with the OWN channel’s ‘For Peete’s Sake’ reality show“, which is an excellent critique of a newly launched TV show. This show may (being charitable) have been created with the intention of being part of the solution but it is quite clear from silentwave’s analysis that poor/ absent research plus maybe a bit of laziness has turned it into part of the problem. Click on the image below to read in full.
The post that I regard as having pushed the starter button for this one was put up the day before yesterday and is titled “Update, March 29: what I’ve been doing lately & Autism Awareness Month“. I posted a comment in response to it when I first saw it, and the enthusiastic response from silentwave to that comment prompted to me to expand on it here. To read it in full please click on the graphic below.

THE FINAL SHARE: A VIDEO

This video, called Amazing Things Happen, has already been viewed almost 2.5 million times. Having seen it on facebook I offer you this link. Below is Amazing Things Happen’s own description of the video:

Amazing Things Happen

An introduction to autism that aims to raise awareness among young non-autistic audiences, to stimulate understanding and tolerance in future generations.

It is intended to be viewed, discussed and shared widely by anyone but especially teachers and parents.

PHOTOGRAPHS: A MEETING OF TWO SPECIAL INTERESTS

Regular followers of this blog will be well aware that I always like to include some of my own photographs somewhere in my posts. Since this post is by way of being an introduction to Autism Acceptance Month I decided to theme this section created from one of my special interests, photography, around another, railwayana. You will note the use of the phrase “special interest” in preference to “obsession”, with the latter having negative connotations. Similarly it is preferable to refer to Autistic Spectrum Conditions rather than Autistic Spectrum Disorders. Here are those pictures…

DSCN5307 — This was given to me by a work colleague (four images).

1-10pics — These are the pictures I took of lot 369 and said in my previous post that I would be sharing them on here. I omitted to capture the text for cards 41-50, but otherwise this gallery is complete and has some close ups as a bonus.

21-30text — You will notice that having started with British cards this set also has some international ones.

EgPalpics — The first of eight close up pictures, each of which features two cards. Only one of the four pairs of cards chosen for this treatment is British.

Undergroundpics — The only British trains to merit a close-up in my gallery.

I end this piece with another showing of the graphic that appeared in the introduction and then a final message:

ENJOY AUTISM ACCEPTANCE MONTH!!

Exclusive: Southern Railway contract to be investigated by National Audit Office

The real answer, as the organisation We Own It have pointed is a fully publicly owned and controlled railway system, but this is an interesting development regarding the worst rail operator in the country…

Westminster Confidential

southern-railway-train-pic-credit-bbc A Southern Railway train: often overcrowded even if it runs. Pic Credit:BBC

CROSS POSTED ON BYLINE.COM

The badly managed and strike prone Southern Railway contract is to be investigated by Parliament’s financial watchdog, the National Audit Office.

After months if not a years of misery for commuters caused by failing services and strike action over safety the NAO has quietly decided to investigate the Department of Transport’s handling of the contract alongside another investigation into the modernisation of Thameslink services. Both are major commuter services into the capital and both are owner by Govia, the country’s biggest privatised train operator.

The decision by the NAO has been quietly slipped out on its website as an update to the Thameslink investigation without an official announcement. Such a move is bound to cause some consternation for transport secretary, Chris Grayling, and his officials.

Publication of the report due this summer will trigger…

View original post 431 more words

Pictures and Petitions

A couple of important petitions, a couple of interesting links and some photographs taken in and around King’s Lynn – enjoy!

INTRODUCTION

I have two important petitions to share with you, a couple of other links and some new photos to share.

RENATIONALISE THE RAILWAYS!

For my first offering I turn to the campaign group We Own It, and their petition calling for Britain’s railways to be publicly owned and controlled. Click on the screenshot below to visit and sign this petition.

AN ANTI-FRACKING PETITION

The latest area to be targeted by fracking companies is Derbyshire. Click on the image below to visit and sign the petition against this:

PHOTOGRAPHS 1:

A COUPLE OF LINKS

Autism Mom’s most recent post is entitled “Words My Son Can Use” and is a very interesting read.

Welfare Weekly have produced a list of the 10 worst excuses produced by employers caught failing to pay the minimum wage which you can read here.

PHOTOGRAPHS 2

We finish with a few more pictures, these ones taken this morning:

	GP on A Cornish Christmas 1: A Curat…
	Renegades Blown Away… on England Fightback Comes Too…
	The First Two Days i… on A Successful Auction
	Marizanne’s Mastercl… on From Victory to Rout in Two…
	From Victory to Rout… on An Extraordinary Opening …

INTRODUCTION

THE PRELIMINARIES – TUESDAY

THE AUCTION ITSELF

BANKNOTES AND COINS

POSTCARDS

STAMPS

EPHEMERA

INTRODUCTION

ST GERMANS

THE JOURNEY TO PENZANCE

PENZANCE STATION

INTRODUCTION

THE STATION

THE REST OF DOWNHAM MARKET

CIVRAY

INTRODUCTION

LOCHLUICHART TO INVERNESS

INTRODUCTION

PLOCKTON

INTRODUCTION

PAGE BY PAGE THROUGH THE BOOK

SOME CLOSE UPS

CLOSE UP 1: LONDON UNDERGROUND STOCK

CLOSE UP 2: A LONDON UNDERGROUND SIGNAL ROOM

CLOSE UP 3: TWO TRAINS IN ONE

CLOSE UP 4: THE FFESTINIOG RAILWAY

INTRODUCTION

THE RAILWAY POSTCARDS

LOT 1015: FOUR BLACK AND WHITE CARDS

LOT 1017 – TEN COLOUR CARDS OF THE FFESTINIOG RAILWAY

THE AUTISM ROUNDEL

INTRODUCTION

WHY NOT AUTISM AWARENESS MONTH?

SOME AUTISM RELATED LINKS

A SILENTWAVE SMORGASBORD

THE FINAL SHARE: A VIDEO

PHOTOGRAPHS: A MEETING OF TWO SPECIAL INTERESTS

ENJOY AUTISM ACCEPTANCE MONTH!!

INTRODUCTION

RENATIONALISE THE RAILWAYS!

AN ANTI-FRACKING PETITION

PHOTOGRAPHS 1:

A COUPLE OF LINKS

PHOTOGRAPHS 2

LOT 1017 – TEN COLOUR CARDS
OF THE FFESTINIOG RAILWAY