3 minute read

Antiques

from Sherborne Times February 2021

by Sherborne Times

from Sherborne Times February 2021, page 118

Article from: Sherborne Times February 2021

Pause for Thought

TIMES CHANGE

Richard Bromell ASFAV, Charterhouse Auctioneers

A late 18th century Mr Punch walking stick, sold for £5,200

At this time last year Coronavirus was just starting to be reported on. Like many people at the time, I thought it was a problem in China which would not affect us, too much. How wrong was that?

Currently we are in lockdown 3.0 and vaccinating the nation has started. Whilst we are still some way from the home straight in the fight against Coronavirus, there is at least some light at the end of the tunnel.

Like many businesses, working out what we can and cannot do and adapting has been interesting, to say the least.

Our auctions are planned well in advance, we do like to know what we are doing not only next month, but also in a year’s time. As we went in and out of lockdown and went up in the tier system, our auction schedule

was on occasion turned upside down and inside out.

Thankfully most of our auctions went ahead, albeit online only and with dates changed. It has been strange to be on the rostrum talking into cameras - I do miss the interaction with buyers in the saleroom.

However, what has surprised me has been the demand for lots. On 23rd March 2020, when we went into the first lockdown, I did wonder what demand there would be for items we sell, and it seems I need not to have worried. If anything, demand seems stronger today than it has ever been.

This is well illustrated with a collection of walking sticks we have had the pleasure of selling over four auctions. As we know, collectors collect. If they have an itch, they will want and need to scratch it in any way they can, not even allowing a global pandemic to get in their way.

Like many collecting fields, when you are involved in the subject it is fascinating. If you have little or no interest in the subject, you will not understand why the collectors are obsessed in their chosen field.

The owner of the walking stick collection lives in Devon. He is hugely knowledgeable having collected for many years and travelled across the globe in his search for walking sticks.

But we are only custodians of what we collect. With a house move on the cards, he asked us to start selling his collection. With so many sticks to sell, we have been selling them over our past four auctions, most of which were carried out in lockdown.

While we have not finished selling the collection, so far we have sold about 240 walking sticks for in excess of £130,000. The last tranche of sticks we sold was in our two-day January auction. We had 78 sticks in this sale and the first lot sold to an online internet buyer bidding against a collector on the telephone. Amazingly, the telephone bidder then went on to buy the next 77 lots of walking sticks for over £40,000, fighting off other collectors from the UK, Italy, America, Belgium and Germany.

This great result contributed to our best ever January auction in our 21 years - not something I thought would be possible in lockdown and during a global pandemic.

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