OUR meeting in February was well attended and we welcomed four visitors, Emily, Joyce, Margaret & Kay, hopefully they will come again as we are always looking for potential new members.

After the business we were introduced to Lindsey Braune, Director of The Cotswold Auction Company based in Cirencester with Salerooms in Cheltenham and Gloucester as well as the one in Cirencester.

Lindsey gave us a brief history of herself and the company which specialises in auctions and valuations and are members of the Chartered Arts and Antiques Surveyors and have been in business since the 1800s.

Lindsey started her working life as a linguist but decided that she didn’t want to teach using her skill and eventually ended up in the antique business.

Our members were asked to bring items to be valued and we were fortunate to have an array of different objects ranging from pieces of jewellery, a Bakelite Sugar Dredger, carriage clocks, silver teapots, albums of cigarette cards and coins, various small pieces of ceramics and glass.

Valuations varied due to age, condition and whether items were collectable, for example coins need to be in really good condition and silver coins prior to 1937 were more valuable as they contained a higher percentage of silver.

Jade and Amber have gone up in price but cigarette cards and maps have gone down.

Art Deco and Art Nouveau items remain very popular.

At the end of the meeting Anne thanked Lindsey for her most enlightening talk and valuations.

Our next meeting is to be a joint one with Hardwicke Women’s Institute and is a talk by Sue Jennings on ‘The Life of Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, the UK’s first female doctor.

This will be held as normal at 7.30pm, Stonehouse Community Centre on Wednesday, March 18.

All visitors welcome.