Meet the Expert

Auctioneer and star of BBC One’s Bargain Hunt, Catherine Southon, on the thrill of the unexpected

I became involved in antiques when I graduated from university. I was working towards a career as a museum curator, but I couldn’t work in a world where everything had to be handled wearing kid gloves. I applied for a job at Sotheby’s and started at the bo!om. I worked there for 10 years and became a head of department.

I set up Catherine Southon

Auctioneers & Valuers in 2012. Until that point I had been working as an antiques consultant and presenting programmes for the BBC. Doing talks in the local area, I was o"en asked, ‘Where’s the nearest auction room?’. As there wasn’t anything nearby, I decided to set up on my own!

No two days are alike in the auction world. Our open valuation days in Kent and Surrey are always my favourite. You never know what’s going to grace your table and some of the best things I have ever seen have come out of shabby supermarket carrier bags!

There’s nothing be er than lo!ing up a sale on a Monday evening. When the cabinets are gleaming and ready to view the next morning, I can #nally breathe a sigh of relief. My favourite items sold to date have been a beautiful diamond ring that went for £27,140, and a real Su$rage!e hunger strike medal that sold for £48,640 [both pictured below]. There was such a buzz in the room and I didn’t know when the bidding was going to stop.

I’m not a collector, I buy things I like. At home I have everything from an 18th-century microscope to a nest of vintage Ercol tables.