STEPPING UP TO THE PLATE WITH FIVE-FIGURE PURCHASES

GW RAILWAYANA’S two-day sale of Railwayana, Posters, Advertising and Motoring items, held over March 16/17, achieved five-figure prices and the auction grossed an impressive £800,000 overall. There were plenty of items to suit most budgets among the 929 lots.

Not surprisingly, Lot 300 GWR cast brass nameplate King George VI ex-6028 was popular with bidders. The original condition plate reached a hammer price of £16,000.

Not far behind was another GWR cast brass nameplate, this time with a double history. Lot 450 Earl Baldwin was ex-Collett ‘Dukedog’ 4-4-0 and then ‘Castle’ 4-6-0 No. 5063. The lightly cleaned, original condition plate was sold for £15,500.

Some locomotive nameplates regularly achieve five-figure sums, but worksplates tend to usually reach prices in the hundreds. However,

Lot 273 was no ordinary example. The catalogue description said it was “One of the earliest UK-based industrial worksplates to have survived”. Hawthorns & Co. Leith Engine Works No. 138 1856 was from an 0-4-0 pannier tank. The lightly face-restored cast brass plate came complete with correspondence from the National Coal Board dated January 1963.

The hammer fell at £12,000.

Combined cabside oval nameplate, numberplate and worksplate Brasenose 3321 Reg. No. 1744 Great Western Railway Swindon Works made its auction debut and made £7,500.

An interesting cast brass nameplate from a Burry Port & Gwendraeth Valley, later GWR 0-6-0T locomotive, was Pioneer, that made £4,000.

An LNER ‘D49’ ‘Hunt’ 4-4-0 left-hand plate The Berkeley ex-222/2754/62754 with fox emblem sold for £7,500. A right-hand fox emblem sold for £500.

Southern Railway nameplate Sir Sagamore ex-Urie/Maunsell ‘King Arthur’ 4-6-0 No. 771/30771 was sold for £5,900. Bodiam, ex-LBSCR ‘Terrier’ ‘A1’ 0-6-0T sold at £5,600.

The next scheduled main auction from GWRA is to be held on July 20 & 21. W: www.gwra.co.uk