All That Glitters
A ring of gold, containing a lock Admiral Lord Nelson's hair was sold at auction for £25,000 in Dorchester, Dorset, England ....
.... while the brass buckles off his shoes went for £5,000. First time I read that, I thought it said 'Brass knuckles' and I was willing to bid. 😇 I was disappointed when I realised what it really said, but it shows how history can grab you anytime.
Old Drinks
If you fancied an old pub how about this. The Cridford Inn in Trusham, Devon, England, which dates back to AD825, was up for sale recently .... all yours for a paltry £395,000. Or you could take a long lease.
The inn is Britain's oldest pub. The building was a long-house.until it was remodelled into its current shape in AD1081. This bit of history was finally snapped up at £40k for a long term lease, and will continue to function as a pub. It has 2 ghosts, lounge bar, restaurant and 4 ensue bedrooms as well as a stream at the end of the beer garden.
Biggles Still Flies
A first edition of the Biggles Book 'The Camels Are Coming', published on the 7th September 1932 sold for £1,800
The first Biggles stories had been previously published in the 'Popular Flying' Magazine edited by W. E. Johns. The first Biggles story - 'The White Fokker' (yes really!!) - was published in the magazine on the 16th of March 1932.
Art From The Gods
Dubbed the Pylos Combat Agate ....
This seal stone carving is just an inch and a half wide (3.6cm), but of a workmanship rarely seen again for 1,000 years until the Classical period of Greek art.
It was discovered in the tomb know as the Griffin Warrior Tomb on mainland Greece. Its of Minoan origin and was either traded or taken by the Griffin warrior in a Mycenaean raid on a Cretan colony ... some details carved on it are not visible with the naked eye which raises the question of whether they had better eyesight around 1500BC or had they discovered magnifying glasses?
No Point Hanging About
The notebooks of the most famous hangman in Britain, Albert Pierrepoint, were put up for sale and went for £24k. Pierrepoint carried out 435 hangings between 1935 and 1956.
Cash In The Attic
A 69 year old woman found and old coin in her attic when she had a clear out. She took it to Vintage Cash Cow in Leeds, who informed her that it was a rare Rawlins Crown and worth around £100k.
Lost And Found
A valuable painting by Degas worth £700,000 was stolen in Marseilles, France, in 2008. It was recovered in 2017, 500 miles away in Paris when it was left on a bus.
No Sh*t Sherlock
One of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes story “The Adventure of the Dancing Men” manuscript sold for $312,500, including the buyer's premium in Texas. The identity of the winning bidder was not disclosed.
Nerd Collecting
Who says collecting toys is nerdy. Someone sold the worlds rarest collection of Star Wars models for a very large amount ..... estimated $360,000. As usual no news reports on the final sale amount.
The prized piece is a prototype figure of a character named Bib Fortuna, the rarest of Star Wars figures with only five in existence .... can't say that I recall him in the movies?
Terrus Infirma
The Terrus museum in Elne in Southern France, was set up to highlight the works of the artist Etienne Terrus (1857 - 1922). However a stock take in early 2018 discovered that 82 of the 148 pictures attributed to the artist, and on display, were in fact worthless fakes. Sometimes old forgeries can have a value of their own, but not in this case.
Its been estimated that up to 20 per cent of all works held in the worlds museums and galleries are likely to be forgeries. Even such easily checked items as gems and jewels can prove to be nothing more than glass - such was the case for gems held in the National Museum of Prague. Thought to be worth millions, they turned out to be glass.
Saintly Surprise
The church of St Mary and St Eanswythe in Folkestone, England was obviously dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and also to a local Anglo-Saxon saint, Princess Eanswythe. Bones found in the walls of the church in 1855 and held there ever since have recently been examined using modern techniques and found to be very likely the bones of St Eanswythe herself as they were of a young woman who had died around the middle of the 7th century.
The princess was born c. AD630, Kent, England and died c. AD650. Although it can be conclusively proved, all the evidence points to her remains being the earliest yet discovered of an English saint. Saint Eanswith's day falls on September the 12th.
A ring of gold, containing a lock Admiral Lord Nelson's hair was sold at auction for £25,000 in Dorchester, Dorset, England ....
 |
| Nelsons Buckles ... Not Knuckle Dusters ... |
.... while the brass buckles off his shoes went for £5,000. First time I read that, I thought it said 'Brass knuckles' and I was willing to bid. 😇 I was disappointed when I realised what it really said, but it shows how history can grab you anytime.
Old Drinks
If you fancied an old pub how about this. The Cridford Inn in Trusham, Devon, England, which dates back to AD825, was up for sale recently .... all yours for a paltry £395,000. Or you could take a long lease.
 |
| The Cridford Inn |
The inn is Britain's oldest pub. The building was a long-house.until it was remodelled into its current shape in AD1081. This bit of history was finally snapped up at £40k for a long term lease, and will continue to function as a pub. It has 2 ghosts, lounge bar, restaurant and 4 ensue bedrooms as well as a stream at the end of the beer garden.
Biggles Still Flies
A first edition of the Biggles Book 'The Camels Are Coming', published on the 7th September 1932 sold for £1,800
 |
| First Edition Cover ..... |
The first Biggles stories had been previously published in the 'Popular Flying' Magazine edited by W. E. Johns. The first Biggles story - 'The White Fokker' (yes really!!) - was published in the magazine on the 16th of March 1932.
Art From The Gods
Dubbed the Pylos Combat Agate ....
 |
| Pylos Combat Agate ... Department of Classics of the University of Cincinnati |
This seal stone carving is just an inch and a half wide (3.6cm), but of a workmanship rarely seen again for 1,000 years until the Classical period of Greek art.
It was discovered in the tomb know as the Griffin Warrior Tomb on mainland Greece. Its of Minoan origin and was either traded or taken by the Griffin warrior in a Mycenaean raid on a Cretan colony ... some details carved on it are not visible with the naked eye which raises the question of whether they had better eyesight around 1500BC or had they discovered magnifying glasses?
No Point Hanging About
The notebooks of the most famous hangman in Britain, Albert Pierrepoint, were put up for sale and went for £24k. Pierrepoint carried out 435 hangings between 1935 and 1956.
Cash In The Attic
A 69 year old woman found and old coin in her attic when she had a clear out. She took it to Vintage Cash Cow in Leeds, who informed her that it was a rare Rawlins Crown and worth around £100k.
Lost And Found
A valuable painting by Degas worth £700,000 was stolen in Marseilles, France, in 2008. It was recovered in 2017, 500 miles away in Paris when it was left on a bus.
No Sh*t Sherlock
One of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes story “The Adventure of the Dancing Men” manuscript sold for $312,500, including the buyer's premium in Texas. The identity of the winning bidder was not disclosed.
Nerd Collecting
Who says collecting toys is nerdy. Someone sold the worlds rarest collection of Star Wars models for a very large amount ..... estimated $360,000. As usual no news reports on the final sale amount.
 |
| Bib Fortuna Is The Rarest Star Wars Figure |
The prized piece is a prototype figure of a character named Bib Fortuna, the rarest of Star Wars figures with only five in existence .... can't say that I recall him in the movies?
Terrus Infirma
The Terrus museum in Elne in Southern France, was set up to highlight the works of the artist Etienne Terrus (1857 - 1922). However a stock take in early 2018 discovered that 82 of the 148 pictures attributed to the artist, and on display, were in fact worthless fakes. Sometimes old forgeries can have a value of their own, but not in this case.
Its been estimated that up to 20 per cent of all works held in the worlds museums and galleries are likely to be forgeries. Even such easily checked items as gems and jewels can prove to be nothing more than glass - such was the case for gems held in the National Museum of Prague. Thought to be worth millions, they turned out to be glass.
Saintly Surprise
The church of St Mary and St Eanswythe in Folkestone, England was obviously dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and also to a local Anglo-Saxon saint, Princess Eanswythe. Bones found in the walls of the church in 1855 and held there ever since have recently been examined using modern techniques and found to be very likely the bones of St Eanswythe herself as they were of a young woman who had died around the middle of the 7th century.
The princess was born c. AD630, Kent, England and died c. AD650. Although it can be conclusively proved, all the evidence points to her remains being the earliest yet discovered of an English saint. Saint Eanswith's day falls on September the 12th.
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