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Sunday 10 June 2012

AUCTIONS & ANTIQUES

Quite a few weeks ago I attended an auction at Watsons because I had fallen in love with a statue of a little boy  gazing into a small aquarium or fish tank. It was listed as valued £20-£40 and was with an old leather doctor's bag with original medical stuff in it. I wanted the statue really badly and prepared myself to bid up to £80. This would cost me a total, including costs, of over £100.
On the day, I stopped bidding at £120!!! Someone else wanted it and/or the doctor's bag. They continued to bid and got the "lot" for £125.
If I had continued to bid  I might have got it for £130 or the others might have continued to bid......
I regretted it for weeks. I felt sad at missing out on the statue. There was a really poignant look on the little boy's face and the whole thing was so well posed. I searched  ebay for something like it  and looked in all the shops for another one.

Friends came to stay this weekend and we were stymied by the rain. So we went to Darlo for a look at Watson's "lots" for next week, had lunch at The Imperial, went to Gillow's and bought a raincoat, checked out the big pet shop for a new scratching post for you know who, stopped at Archers for an ice-cream and then went to Barney for a quick saunter round the shops.
We ended up at the bottom of The Bank, in an Antiques Emporium called the Mission Hall.
Guess who was there.........
Yes!!! It was Little boy.
He is now called Frank and guess what else. He has a little aquarium on his knees which I suppose is meant to hold a goldfish or a tadpole or such and is just the right size for all the polished stones that I didn't know what else to do with. Frank is now the guardian of the polished rocks. AND he cost less all up than he would have cost at auction in the first place.
Madame Recamier is not sure where this shoe-less newcomer came from but she is keeping a careful watch on him until he has settled in and he has been allocated a more permanent place in the household.
He seems happier every time I look at him.
Cheers Gillian

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hooray for happy endings!

carol said...

Very nice story - he looks happy to be home! Madame does look very disapproving?

Loveday Antiques & Furniture said...

It's absolutely horrible when you see something go at auction that you really wanted. It's happened to me almost hundreds of times by now. I remember the worst being an antique rolls royce which I lost by about £1000, still the bidding was far too high for me to retain my sanity and continue bidding.

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