Out & About July 2017

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Thomas Plant discovered his love for auctioneering
at a young age, living on the family farm. Watching
the man with the gavel at local cattle auctions was a
regular event, and Thomas quickly decided on which
side of the rostrum he’d rather be.
He went on to take a degree in antiques and served
his apprenticeship with leading auction houses,
including Christie’s in London.
Today, Thomas is the co-owner of Special Auction
Services in Newbury and is also a favourite TV expert
on BBC programmes, including Bargain Hunt, Flog it!
and Antiques Road Trip.
If you’ve any jewellery, antiques and collectables
you’d like valued for auction, don’t forget SAS
hold free valuation days every Wednesday at:
Saleroom Two, 80 Greenham Business Park,
Newbury, RG19 6HW.
Telephone 01635 580 595
for an appointment.
See over the page or a chance to join
Thomas Plant on a great antiques
pursuit and raise money for charity
The town of Mauchline in South West Scotland
made souvenirs over a period of 100 years,
until 1933 when the last factory burnt down.
Troika pottery was made in Cornwall between
the 1960s and 1980s and was a particular
collecting phenomenon in the 70s. It is now
considered valuable.
Troika can take the form of vases, tableware,
lamp bases and even wall plaques, and can
fetch in the region of a few hundred pounds for
good and fine examples.
Collecting of the natural-coloured sand of Alum
Bay as a souvenir when visiting the Isle of
Wight has also been a pastime since Victorian
times.
As a child, I remember friends holidaying there
and coming back with glass bottles looking
beautiful filled with sand. We see paperweights
and curios from Alum Bay at auction and these
can make small returns.
Holiday souvenirs are not limited to the UK,
of course.
Aboriginal dream pictures and artefacts do
come up from time to time, as well as Mdina
blown glassware from Malta, which comes
in the form of vases and bowls. And we have
even had wooden objects carved by the people
of the Pitcairn Island in the South Pacific or
pieces made by Amazonians and those in
African countries.
I collect Pilgrim Shells, which were originally
worn on cloaks by those on their way back
from a pilgrimage, to let others know that they
had made it to the destination.
I favour the ones carved out of mother-of-
pearl, which are from the Holy Land and depict
scenes from the Bible. You can buy them at
auction for around £100.
A pair of
19th-century
Inuit snow
goggles,
carved from
a piece of
caribou antler
c.1880
An African Ndebele Beadwork jocolo,
or ‘bride’s apron’, early 20th century
Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778),
Veduta del Tempio della Sibilla in
Tivoli, sold for £250
A carved
Pilgrim Shell
OA antiques