It’s white gloves at Driffield as station cafe memorabilia goes under hammer

ANDY Spicer, director of Spicers Auctioneers of Driffield, East Yorkshire, was celebrating his ‘white glove’ sale on February 14, after his first venture into the world of railwayana auctions.

The phrase means an auction in which every lot sells, and Andy’s indeed managed that, for every one of the 334 lots found a new home.

At the core of the sale was railwayana, but other items included advertising enamel signs, all from the buffet and refreshment rooms at Bridlington station, where it had been on display until last Christmas Eve, when John Sadler, who had run it for 17 years, closed its doors for the last time.

The modern era won the day with a £2000 realisation achieved by nameplate York Intercity Control from

Class 47 diesel No. 47673, which started life in November 1965 as D1973 and carried the name for just six months in 1994. Next up at £1650 was a 3½in gauge live steam model of LNER Q5 class 0-8-0 No. 3261 (BR No. 63261), built at Gateshead Works in March 1902 and withdrawn from the town’s Borough Gardens shed (54C) in October 1950.

A GER 12in dial clock went for £750, a Compagnie Internationale des Wagonlits carriage brass crest for £650, and for £550 each, a BR(NE) ex-bridlington station Refreshments enamel sign and a Dame Vera Lynn nameplate from preserved North Yorkshire Moors Railway WD Austerity 2-10-0 No. 3672 that was unveiled by Dame Vera herself in August 1985. Prices exclude buyer’s premium of 20% (inc VAT).

“This was only the second‘white glove’ sale I have conducted in my 35 years as an auctioneer,” said a delighted Andy. Referring to the realisation of an LNER watering can, he said: “I have never before sold a watering can for £120, nor ever likely to in the future!”