Auction fever ....

I've been dying to share my auction bargains with you since the weekend but my daughter kidnapped the lappy and it's only just returned home this evening!

At 6 am on Saturday morning OH and I set off for deepest Essex ..... as we drove around the M25 the sun was just rising giving a wonderful pink hue to the sky heralding the start of another fine October day.  I can't believe it is November next week!  OH was entering his canaries in a bird show in Chelmsford and it didn't take me long to find the nearest auction sale in Colchester.  These are my favourite haunts now that the car boot season has come to an end.

Stanfords is a mix of general sale and country sale with outside lots including garden equipment, bikes, bales of hay, timber and an inside fur & feather sale of poultry and rabbits. There's also fruit, veg and meat.  It was the general sale that I had my eye on and I'd managed to look at the catalogue on the internet before we left home ...... I wasn't disappointed ..... there's nothing quite like a large barn packed with brown wooden furniture, ceramics, pictures and boxes of house clearance items.  My lot think I am mad but I am sure I will have my Del Boy moment one day!

I try to be sensible and set myself a limit for each lot that I am interested in and if bidding goes past that I stop and snowball that amount onto the other lots that I have marked.  That way you avoid auction fever and making bids that you later live to regret.

Wanna see what I got???

Lot number 1 was the picture in the top left box .... dated 1898 it is a print called Never Mind by Fred Morgan  .... a gorgeous study of the older child comforting the little one who has broken the head off her puppet. 

Lot 2 was the mirror at the bottom right .... a big heavy lump of Victorian carved oak with bevelled edge mirror glass.  Lot 3 is all the other pictures which are a mix of oils and the top middle is an original hand sketched in pastels & crayon dating to 1888 ..... all these pictures together with some empty frames were in one box and I only wanted them for the frames and hadn't really paid much attention to the pictures.  They are really quite a nice selection now I have had time to take a good look at them.

Lot 4 was the stool .... a revamp project for the future and Lot 5 was the pair of shabby chic shelves.

Lot 6 was the selection of sewing items with two sewing boxes and lot 7 was the remaining items in a mixed lot of china & glass ..... these are the best of the items and I took the rest to the CS.

Of course I couldn't resist lot 8 .... a lovely 1922 Singer sewing machine in wooden carrying case.

Not a bad day's work for the grand total of £90!