*Auction on Sunday.

I will be conducting the auction at South East Auctions on Sunday. SEAL is my favourite auction. Huge diversity of stuff, nice people, nice customers, loads of bargains, almost everything being sold.

It generally takes about six hours – non-stop.

This month has the usual wide range of goods – Clearance from a sports shop, garden machinery, bikers racing suit, tools, water scooter. Loads of jewellery, silver, porcelain, stamps, coins, model trains, antique and modern furniture, musical instruments, bagpipes, accordion, violin, telescopes and dozens of oils, watercolours, prints and collectors items.

You can download the catalogue at http://www.southeasternauctions.co.uk/downloads/seal_catalogue_july2007.pdf

*Harry Potter makes $18,000.

A first edition of "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" went for $18,000 in Bonham’s auction on Tuesday. The price was a little disappointing. Bonham’s estimate was $10,000 to $20,000, but some considered that estimate to be on the conservative side.

Having said that, it is still an amazing price for a book of such recent vintage. However, there were only about 800 copies produced and many went to school libraries and resultant mutilation.

The final edition of the Potter series comes out on July 21st.

*GREEN MAYOR’S CAR FOR AUCTION.

Message from the Mayor of Galway:

This is an extremely good car. It will also be delivered by the mayoral chauffeur.
All monies above cost will go to charity.
It is probably the most eco-friendly car in the world.
Best Regards,
Niall O Brolchain
Outgoing Mayor of Galway City
Phone 091-596680 Email niallob@esatclear.ie

Here is the Ebay listing:

This auction is for the Galway Mayoral Car 2006/2007. Having reached the end of his highly successful term as Mayor of Galway City , Cllr Niall O'Brolchain of the Green Party is auctioning his car for charity .....All proceeds will be divided between the 15 Galway charities chosen by The Mayor for The Mayoral Ball 2007. The Mayor's 'Green' car became famous throughout his mayoralty and its auction has been highly publicised both locally and nationally.
Tom Hogan Motors are kindly donating the car at cost .It has been used for one year for attending functions only and was driven by professional drivers throughout.

http://cgi.ebay.ie/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170125403382&ssPageName=A

*Spitting Image Auction: Thatcher beats Brown.

A Spitting Image puppet of Margaret Thatcher made £5,040 at the recent Bonhams auction of Film and Rock Memorabilia. Gordon Brown only made £4,800.

It had been expected that Brown’s imminent elevation to PM would boost the price beyond Thatcher.

Both results were well above the pre-auction estimates.

The Thatcher puppet was purchased by The Imperial War Museum while the Chancellor was flogged off to a private buyer.

A 1978 Superman suit worn by Christopher Reeve went for £8,400.

*Hammer falls on Yahoo auctions.

On Thursday next, June 28th, Yahoo! will be closing its auction service in the UK & Ireland. Until then, all current auctions will continue to run until their natural close.

They recommend that in the future, their customers try out ‘the great service offered by eBay’, their preferred online auction service.

*Francis Bacon cast-offs for auction.

Ron Thomas is indeed a farsighted man. During the 18 years he worked as a porter for Marlborough Galleries, he often had to deliver and collect pictures from the painter Francis Bacon. The artist occasionally got him to do odd jobs around the house. They struck up an enduring friendship and Bacon gave him torn canvasses to keep or dispose.

Mr. Thomas had the foresight to keep them all. Now in bad health, he is disposing of his collection at Ewbank Auctioneers in Surrey.

The estimate for the collection is £43,000 but I think that’s very likely to be exceeded.

At Sotheby's Contemporary Art Sale on Thursday a 1978 self-portrait by Francis Bacon sold for £21.5m, nearly double the higher estimate.

*Wilkes Booth manuscript makes $312,000 at auction.

John Wilkes Booth’s manuscript draft of his Secession Crisis speech on the break of the Union and threat of Civil War, made $312,000 in Christie’s, New York recent auction of Books & Manuscripts.
The total sale realised $3,560,220

Among other rarities sold was a first edition of James Joyce’s Ulysses, which went for $40,000.

*Monet, money.

A Monet Painting bought in 1990 for $3,400,000 made $35,500,000 in Christies Monday night auction. A nice little earner!

Waterloo Bridge, temps couvert, painted in 1904, was bought by an American collector for almost three times the estimate.

*Bronte Birthplace for auction.

It has been described as“the Bethlehem of the Brontës” and it will be auctioned to the highest bidder on Monday next, June 25th.

The Bronte Birthplace at 72 -74 Market St in the village of Thornton, near Bradford in West Yorkshire was the birthplace of Emily, Charlotte, Anne and Branwell Bronte and was the family home for five years.

The acuctioneers are Eddisons and the sale will take place at Leeds United's Elland Road football stadium.

Being sold off a guide price of £200,000, the Grade II listed building, part of which has been used as a butcher's and a restaurant in the years since the Bronte's residency, features four bedrooms, three staircases and a split level dining room with front sitting room, the room in which the Brontes were born.

Most recently owned by novelist, Barbara Whitehead, who restored many of the homes original features and made it available for public viewing, the property is being sold due to her forthcoming retirement.

*Supersonic Auction

Many auctions are described a fabulous, giant, massive etc. However a truly supersonic auction takes place in France from September 28th-Oct 1st. You can now you can own a piece of Concord!

The embodiment of the supersonic era will be sold off piece by piece at the Halle aux Grains in Toulouse.

You can download a catalogue from
http://concorde-encheres.com/

The website is in French and English and absentee bidding is accepted.

Estimated prices seem reasonable.

For a good investment I fancied:
Smoke Detector: 100-200 euros.
Dinner plates & cutlery service: 200-300 euros.
Cabin seat: 200-300 euros
and a telephone at the same estimate.

Others might want to be a bit more adventurous and go for a whole engine:-)

*A new way to sell houses?

A friend sent me details of a personal ad that appeared in Craiglist (San Francisco)

It was from a lady realtor. To put it mildly, she got ‘hot and bothered’ when making a sale and wanted buyers who would get involved with her.

I know that auctioneering dates back a long way (500BC at least) but this is the first time I have heard of a connection with the ‘world’s oldest profession’

*Marilyn Munroe Umbrella for Irish Museum.

One of the star attractions at the recent Julien's Summer Auction in the Beverly Hilton Hotel was an umbrella used by Marilyn Munroe in the famous 1949 photo shoot by Andre de Dienes. It sold for $42,000.

The victorious bidder was William Doyle, who plans to display it at the Museum of Style Icons in County Kildare.

*Elvis Presley’s prescription pill bottle makes $2,640 at auction.

Several Presley items sold at the annual Julien's Summer Auction in the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Auctioneer Darren Julien commented: "We'd planned to sell the bottle with the pills, but the Los Angeles Police Department told us it would be a federal crime to do it, so sad to say we had to remove the pills."
Other Presley items sold included his gold-plated gun which made $28,800 and a mike once used by him which went for $15,000.

*Niche auctions

Most auctioneers have specialities, but the most unusual niche auctions must surely be those conducted by David Norton of Michigan. http://www.nortonauctioneers.com
They conduct auctions of haunted house installations. In their latest auction was:

“The Crypt”
800 sq. ft. detailed Haunted House complete with Facade, Wall Panels,Skeleton Panels, Scenic Lights, Electric Harness, Sound System, Camo Net Animations, Strobes, Fogger, Miscellaneous items. This is a modular unit that can be set-up anywhere. Can be taken down in just hours and will fit in a 24’ box truck! Unit will be set-up and in full operation for auction. Buyer will be given one week for removal.Take down, delivery, and/or storage of unit is available.

Read an interview with David here:

http://www.hauntedreport.com/2007/05/fiendish_friday_interview_davi.html

*Aladdin's cave of stolen treasures.

On June 1st I wrote that I doubted the tales of crooked millionaire collectors. Well now it seems that I may have been wrong and that one hoard was in a mansion in Mill Hill, only a few miles away from where I live.

A treasure trove of stolen art and antiques, was discovered in the £2m mansion belonging to the London crime boss Terry Adams, in 2003.

When detectives arrested the north London godfather they found what they later described as an Aladdin's cave of treasures gracing his home. Most of the property was found to have been stolen from country houses, art galleries and museums over the last 10-15 years.

Working with the Art Loss Register and officers from the arts and antiques squad at Scotland Yard, detectives managed to trace the owners of £274,000 worth of the stolen art and antiques art.

The Art Loss Register, holds details of 170,000 items of stolen art and antiques on its database.

The Adams brothers ran the most feared crime group in North London.

Adams was ordered last month to pay £4.7m for legal costs over four years.

*Australian PM up for auction.

Prime Minister John Howard and Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd have agreed to be listed on eBay in the name of charity, with bids starting at $2,999.

One winning bidder and a friend will join Mr Howard at the PM's XI cricket match at Manuka Oval in November, as well as a reception for both cricket teams at his Canberra residence the night before.

The highest bidder for Mr Rudd, meanwhile, will be invited to bring six friends to dinner with the Labor leader and another "surprise'' frontbencher in Parliament House.

The auction is being run in conjunction with the annual Federal Parliamentary Press Gallery Midwinter Ball, held in Canberra on June 20.

The lions' share of money raised from the auction and the ball, which is expected to top $150,000, will be given to the Burns Foundation Australia.

*Angelina Jolie Jewellery for auction.

The necklace and earrings are a vintage-style suite of rose cut diamonds set in 22K gold.

The pieces will be auctioned by charityfolks.com and all proceeds will go to UNHCR programs in Chad for refugees from the Darfur region.

Jolie has served as Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

The auction starts on June 19th and runs through to July 2nd.

*Diana Car makes $12,000 At Auction

A car once used to chauffeur Princess Diana around raised just a little more than $12,000 recently at auction.

The Jaguar Sovereign, a 1992 model in Westminster blue sold at Manchester's Simon Charles Auctioneers.

The vehicle - made to order for Buckingham Palace - sold for a modest $12,065, well under the price expected by the auctioneers.

The Jaguar was part of the royal fleet for three years, and Diana was even photographed arriving at an engagement in the luxury car.

*Feast and auction.

I conducted the third annual auction at The Brockwell Park Feast yesterday. It was great fun and everyone was in good humour after a three course outdoor dinner.

The lots were quite varied with several ‘dinners for two’, pot of honey produced on the site, apple tree, tour of City Hall etc.
You can see photos, including one of me, on the Friends Of Brockwell Park site:

http://ccgi.fitchett.plus.com/brockwellpark/bigpic.php

*Napoleon’s golden sword makes over $6.4 Million at auction.

One of the most desirable of all Napoleon collectables came up for auction yesterday.
The gold encrusted sword was used by the emperor while riding into battle.

French auctioneer Jean-Pierre Osenat sold it at auction on Sunday in Fontainebleau.

The buyer is unknown but the auctioneer stated that the sword would remain in Napoleon’s family.