IN THE absence of both Chairman and Vice Chairman who were on holiday (not together I hasten to add), the Treasurer Tim Vale hosted the meeting and welcomed members.

Details of the menu were given out for the Summer Outing in July to Westons Cider.

Without further ado, Tim introduced Nick Bowkett the owner and front of business of Stroud Auctions who with the aid of two colleagues gave us a most interesting insight into the Life of an Auctioneer.

Nick had to leave early due to another commitment but gave a talk about the business and what they cover.

He said that he himself could not know everything and employed experts in their particular fields.

He suggested that if you are interested in collecting, you should collect small collectable items such as silver, particularly if it has initials of the maker on it.

Apparently at the moment, big beaded coral necklaces and amber were fetching good prices but said that the market is continually changing.

One of the things he does is to do training courses for charity shops and often visits them to look at items for which he doesn’t charge.

He gave an insight on when he is called into value things at homes where maybe there has been a bereavement and how emotional it can be.

People can also take items to the Auction rooms themselves to get them valued.

They do a lot of online bidding and purchase and send items all over the world and apparently have the highest commission bids in the country.

He thinks that the success of their business is that they are friendly and straight forward and emphasised that you have to be squeaky clean as they are acting for both the buyer and seller.

He then introduced Thomas and Mike who both ably entertained and informed us.

Both were completely different individuals and collected different antiques but both had the same love and enthusiasm as Nick himself and were very articulate.

As Thomas talked and demonstrated about his love of music boxes and toy steam engines, we could imagine his home full to capacity with him stepping over things in order to get to bed.

He had worked in an old fashioned shop previously which when it closed, he ended up working for Stroud Auctions.

We didn’t have to be told but could see how much he loved his job and dealing with customers.

Mike’s particular interest was collecting coins and said that people should buy the best they could afford.

He suggested buying Georgian or Victorian rather than the sets of new ones that come out.

He also collected pocket watches and again said it was best to buy a named item, ie Hunters.

Much to our surprise he also collected squeeze boxes and brought along several to show us and even played a few tunes for our entertainment.

Again we could see the interest and enthusiasm in his job and how much he enjoyed working there.

Members had brought items to be valued but unfortunately none of us had anything approaching on the lines of value that appear on the Antiques Road Show.

There followed a questions and answers session ending with Tim giving a vote of thanks for an extremely enjoyable talk.

The meeting finished with members enjoying refreshments and lots of chat.

The next meeting is on April 29 when the local well known Vernon Gibberd will talk on Micro Farming.