A Working Day

An account of a working day, and the journeys either way, and a photo gallery.

Yesterday was an eventful day at work – finishing the last of the imaging for the March auction, sending a mass email out (the second of two, the first went out on Tuesday) about that auction, and starting the imaging for the April sale. In this post I describe the day in full and say something about each element of the upcoming auctions.

PREPARING

My working hours, constrained by the operating hours of James and Sons and the way in which buses run in Norfolk are short – I start at 10:45 or thereabouts, and finish four hours later as the business shuts down for the day. However I get quite a bit done in that time, even on a somewhat fragmented day such as yesterday was. I generally leave home by 9:30, which allows me to take a scenic route to the bus stop (the direct route is about a five minute walk, but is not that interesting). Then I spend the bus journey reading, and will arrive at James and Sons’ premises in Fakenham clear-headed and ready to go.

IMAGING

My usual practice when imaging at work is photograph about 25 items (one column of lot numbers + indications of how many pictures I have taken of eahc item in my notebook) before loading them on to the computer and cropping and straightening them as required. If I am imaging for a sale that is not already online I will copy the images from the folder I save them in on my computer to the main images folder for that auction on the network drive at the end of the day, but when the auction is already online I also have to upload the new images, and sometimes notify bidders that the images are now available for viewing. I had initially started work on the April stuff, a quantity of which was already in my imaging area, but then had to switch back to the March stuff as there were some lots from day two of that sale (Stamps and Postal History) which had not been imaged. Near the end of the day I was able to revert to the April sale, but the next lot I came to for that sale (Sporting Memorabilia) was one that required a large photo gallery, so I had no time to do any more than that one extra lot.

Day one of the March sale is coins, banknotes and cheques, and can be viewed here and here. Day two, which I was finishing off the imaging for yesterday, is available on the same links, but for those who want to start on the page where the first lots of day two are can go here and here (the new day does not start on a new page because the auction is treated as a single entity on these platforms). I end this section with the image gallery for lot 655, the first item I imaged yesterday…

Lot 655 (seven images, capturing what i considered the most important aspects of it).

THE END OF THE DAY

The next bus back to King’s Lynn after the end of the work day is at 3:45PM, so I generally fill in time by visiting Fakenham Library, as I did on this occasion. I get off the bus home one stop before the very closest stop to my home and walk home from there by way of the Gaywood River Path – always worth doing, especially in daylight, which by now is the case. I appreciated seeing several muntjac as I walked, though I was less impressed by lawbreaking oaf who roared past me (and a number of others) on a quad bike (illegal as it is a motorised vehicle and this path is for the use of pedestrians and cyclists only – an e-bike used with care and consideration would be acceptable, but a dirty great quadbike used with neither care nor consideration is most definitely not). This little section provides a useful lead into…

PHOTOGRAPHS

…My usual sign off…

All Time XIs – Colours

An all time XI, an auction announcement and a large photo gallery.

I cannot claim that the XI that forms the body of this post is an absolutely stellar one, but I have a specific reason for this piece of whimsy which I will explain later in the post.

THE XI IN BATTING ORDER

Jack Brown (Yorkshire, England, right handed opening batter). A very successful opening batter for his county, and played two legendary innings in games of higher standard than county – a match and series winning 140 in the last match of the 1894-5 Ashes series and a spectacular 163 which helped the Players to chase down 501 against the Gentlemen at Lord’s in 1900.
Bill Brown (Australia, right handed opening batter). A successful opening batter after the retirements of two other Bills, Ponsford and Woodfull and before the rise of Barnes and Morris pushed him out of the side.
George Brown (Hampshire, England, right handed batter, ). A tough competitor, especially noted for his play against fast bowling.
+Ben Brown (Sussex, Hampshire, right handed batter, wicket keeper). A little high in the order, but a very fine batter and keeper at county level.
Cameron Green (Australia, right handed batter, right arm fast bowler). A splendid all rounder.
*Freddie Brown (Surrey, Northamptonshire, England, right handed batter, leg spinner, right arm medium pacer, captain). He was the youngest member of the 1932-3 Ashes tour party, and didn’t play much on that trip. His next visit to Australia came 18 years later as captain (Norman Yardley and George Mann were both unavailable for business reasons, and England weren’t quite ready for a professional captain, so Brown who had done well as skipper of Northamptonshire ended with the job, and had a respectable series as player and even in a well beaten side was acknowledged to have done a good job as captain. In first class cricket he scored over 13,000 runs and took over 1,200 wickets.
Gordon White (South Africa, right handed batter, leg spinner). His test stats look fairly ordinary, but he was an important part of the SA teams of his day, and his FC averages were the right way around – 27.70 with bat, 20.05 with ball.
Dougie Brown (Warwickshire, Scotland, right handed batter, right arm fast medium bowler). A good county all rounder, his presence at number eight gives the batting depth. His FC averages, like those of Gordon White are the right way round – 30 with the bat and 28 with the ball in his case. I have placed him below the South African because batting was easier in the 1990s than it had been nine decades earlier, which more than makes up for him having a higher batting average.
Jack ‘Farmer’ White (left arm orthodox spin bowler, right handed batter). One of Somerset’s finest cricketers, and his accuracy and stamina were crucial to England’s comprehensive triumph in the 1928-9 Ashes. At Adelaide in that series he toiled through 124 overs across the two Aussie innings and emerged with 13-256 in the match.
David ‘Butch’ White (Hampshire, England, right arm fast bowler, left handed tail end bat). The reason for this XI making its appearance. Part of a new ball pairing with Derek Shackleton which was instrumental in the winning of Hampshire’s first ever County Championship. Unplayable on his day, he took over 1,100 FC wickets at 23 a piece, though he gained only two England caps.
George Brown (Sussex, Hampshire, fast bowler, right handed tail end batter). He played in the 1820s, and his speed was the stuff of legends – one story which clearly grew in the telling was of a dog walker walking close to the boundary behind the stumps when one of Brown’s rockets beat everyone including the keeper and was racing directly towards the dog, the dog walker attempted to stop the ball with their coat and the ball burst straight through the coat and killed the dog.

This XI is undoubtedly a little light on batting, though the number of all rounders there, highlighted by Dougie Brown being at number eight, is somewhat of a mitigating factor, and the bowling attack is superb. Butch White and George Brown the bowler opening, with Dougie Brown third seamer, Cameron Green fourth seamer, and Farmer White, Gordon White and Freddie Brown spin options (I can’t think of situation in which Freddie’s seam or George Brown the batter’s occasional quick stuff could be required by this team) make this team a serious bowling force.

A SPORTING MEMORABILIA AUCTION COMING UP

On September the 26th James and Sons will be having an auction of various items of sporting memorabilia, including some very old football programmes and a range of items of cricketana. The latter includes three balls with which Butch White performed great bowling feats and which have silver plaques affixed to them detailing the feats in question. Catalogues can be viewed here or here.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Now for my usual sign off…

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.

	Thomas on 49
	Shaun Bradford on 49
	Thomas on Reaching Back to WG Grace Twic…
	Elena Delle Selve on Reaching Back to WG Grace Twic…
	Thomas on Two Contrasting Routes to…