Another fun discovery: The monthly BL Auction in Radley's village hall. Once a month, the village hall of Radley (the village just south of us) hosts an antique and junk auction filled with all kinds of interesting stuff. It's an auction where antique and bric brac dealers attend to find treasures for their stores. Most of the items there come from estate and home clean-outs. In some cases entire boxes or lots are for sale -- you bid on the entire contents of a box. I've never seen anything quite like it.
You can view the items starting at 8:30am and the bidding starts at 10am. The auctioneer is a quick wit and has a funny quip about every item. I've only been once so I don't know if the inventory I saw was typical, but here are a few highlights:
Handmade christening gown
Scrapbooks filled with old newspaper clippings
This is a box filled with one person's diaries. The earliest one was dated 1934-35. I wish I had bid on this box. I could have bought it for 3 pounds (the minimum) and it would have been interesting to read about this person's life.
I almost bid on item #171. It is an old brass Welsh miner's lamp. It sold for 23 pounds.
I saw one women buy a whole set of Royal Dalton China for 3 pounds! What a steal!
There were a lot of items and lots that no one bid on. It takes a keen eye to find the treasures buried among the junk. That is what was so fun about the auction -- it was a real treasure hunt. I'm looking forward to going back, and now that I have a sense of how the auction works, I may even bid on some treasure or piece of junk that I find. I'll keep you posted.
Sounds really cool! Would love to go with you sometime! xxx
ReplyDeleteThe auctioneer's wife bakes the most wondwerful cakes - on sale at the back of the hall, to be washed down by a mug of well-brewed tea...
ReplyDeletePosted by her admirer from Oxford, who also has found the odd bargain at the sale