Antiques

END OF THE LINE

Richard Bromell ASFAV, Charterhouse Auctioneers

Afair amount of my home visits are to carry out valuations for inheritance tax, more commonly referred to as probate valuations. Even after three and a half decades of being a valuer, I still find some parts of this strange and a little unnerving. To carry out the probate valuation, I need to carry out due diligence in the property. This involves not only looking through the under-stair cupboards, the kitchen and bathroom cabinets but also through the wardrobes and chests of drawers.

Most of the time, there are old vacuum cleaners in the cupboard under the stairs, open packets of biscuits in the kitchen cupboards, used tubes of toothpaste in the bathroom, nicely laundered garments in the wardrobe and socks tied up as pairs in the chests of drawers. Then again, sometimes there can be silver tea sets in the kitchen cupboards or items of jewellery hidden away in chests of drawers.

More often than not, executors, family or friends will clear away the clothing, food and used toothpaste tubes before we are asked to clear the property. Occasionally, there are no family or friends to do this, which is what

happened recently with a deceased estate we were asked to help with.

The family had been in the same property for many decades. The property passed from an uncle, to his niece and then to her husband over the years, and at this point the family ran out of family members to hand the property, goods and chattels on to, so we were asked to help the executors clear it from top to bottom and inside out.

Clearing such a property was quite a task, especially as the family never seemed to throw anything away. With the cottage being in a small village, the family kept plenty of ‘supplies’ in case of a power cut, being snowed in, or simply to save themselves a journey to the nearest market town. Every cupboard and drawer were full of several lifetimes of detritus. Some were full of silver cutlery or old diaries, and some were full of pieces of string not long enough to be used when cut but might come in handy one day. However, as is often the case, there were several golden nuggets which we unearthed.

The first, and perhaps the most obvious, was a 1960 MG A Roadster. I say obvious as a car is quite a difficult item to miss, but when I opened the garage door this was not the first thing I saw. What I saw first was piles of rubbish everywhere in the double garage, with most of it thrown on top of the car!

Just like the contents of the house, the sporty MG passed from the uncle to the niece and then to her husband. It is now looking for a new family and garage to live in, which it will find when it goes under the gavel in our auction of classic and vintage cars on Sunday 11th April. Estimated at £8,000-12,000, it is being sold without reserve.

However, it was an RAF pottery mess plate which caught me unawares. Dating to the 1920’s or 1930’s, they are generally worth less than £30. Still interesting, it was not until we turned the plate over that we saw an old paper label sellotaped down. This said the plate was owned and used by T E Lawrence whilst serving in the RAF (under the pseudonym of T E Shaw).

This connection propelled the plate into a different league, and we have just sold this to a T E Lawrence collector in London for £1,430 in our February auction. A great result for the executors.

charterhouse-auction.com

CHARTERHOUSE

Auctioneers & Valuers

Forthcoming Auction Programme

Coins, Medals & the Contents of a Private Museum near Dorchester Thursday 11th March

Antiques, Interiors & Garden Statuary Friday 12th March

Classic & Vintage Cars Sunday 11th April

Classic & Vintage Motorcycles Sunday 16th May

1998 Ferrari 456 GTA £38,000-42,000

Contact Richard Bromell for advice on single items and complete collections

Valuations for Probate and Insurance The Long Street Salerooms, Sherborne DT9 3BS 01935 812277 www.charterhouse-auction.com