Free valuation day at golf club could throw up surprises
ANTIQUES, JEWELLERY
AFREE valuation day is to take place at the Elsham Golf Club on Wednesday, May 22, with specialist members of the Duggleby team ready to assess everything from jewellery, watches and silver through to art, antiques, collectables – or anything else that anyone wants to bring along. Valuation events always throw up surprises so it is going to be interesting to see what emerges from bags and parcels on this visit to North Lincolnshire. Our last valuation day at Elsham, six months ago, attracted visitors from all over the region and produced a string of interesting finds, perhaps the most unexpected of which was a volume in a collection of cookery books brought along by a local lady.
Old books don’t generally set pulses racing, at least old cookery books don’t, but this was a first edition of Elizabeth David’s ‘Summer Cooking’, published in 1955, and complete with its dust jacket.
Elizabeth David (1913-1992) was the viscount’s daughter who is credited with revolutionising British cooking after the war thanks to books and articles about the great European cuisines. Summer Cooking was the fourth of the eight books that she wrote between 1950 and 1984. First editions are rare, particularly with their dust jackets still l intact.
Co-incidentally the book is to go o under the hammer in a Decorative e Antiques & Collectables Auction in n Scarborough on May 17, so just a few w days before we return to Elsham. It goes s into that sale with a pre-sale estimate of f £100-£200.
Other noteworthy finds on that visit t to North Lincolnshire included pre-war r toys, mining industry memorabilia and d jewellery.
Jewellery specialist Charlie Ward had d a particularly busy day and it is a field d that regularly produces some brilliant t valuation day suprises. On one memorable occasion a lady who was about to take what she thought was a piece of costume jewellery to a charity shop decided to drop in to one of our valuation days and have it checked.
She was pleased she did. The stones in the brooch were as she suspected semi-precious but the piece was made by Dorrie Nossiter (1893-1977), a Birmingham jeweller famed for her prewar designs in the arts and crafts style. The brooch made £500 at auction. Another find by one of our jewellery specialists was one piece in a box of costume jewellery, again on its way to a charity shop. The 18 carat gold ring was designed by Archibald Knox (18641933), an artist of huge importance in the Arts and Crafts movements. That sold for £2,000.
Hopefully the day will provide some enquiries in my particular field of interest, paintings, but I would stress that it really is not necessary to haul large or potentially valuable works of art along to Elsham. Photographs are enough to get us started!
The valuation day at Elsham Golf Club is scheduled to run from 10am2pm on Wednesday, May 22. No appointment is needed.
Details of the saleroom’s programme of valuation days at venues around the region are available on the firm’s website (www.davidduggleby.com).