16th March 2017
The first part of the superb collection formed by the late Brian Girling was offered in the Warwick and Warwick auction held on 15 March. This first sale featured a wide range of his British topographical and social history cards, offered on a county basis, and was extremely well received by a large room attendance.
Estimates of the Girling lots totalled £36,560. Of the 82 lots on offer, 81 of them sold, realising in excess of £52,000, including the buyers’ premium. Every county on offer was in demand, especially those containing top of the range social history cards. The best result recorded was the £2,360 paid for a collection of 320 south-east London cards estimated at £1,400.
This first part was a “taster” and a larger section of Brian’s collection will follow in the Warwick and Warwick sale to be held on 17 May. The contents of the May sale will include the balance of the personal topographical collection, foreign countries and Brian’s personal subject card collection. Once the Girling personal collection has been sold, the Girling stock will be offered over several Warwick and Warwick auctions.
The 15 March sale was a good sale even without the Girling lots and many fine results were recorded. In the British topos section, excellent results were recorded for Cornwall, Devon, Essex, Kent, Oxon, Norfolk and Suffolk. Among the cards offered individually, a close-up real photo card of the Ship Street, Brighton, Post Office, with mail coach and horses and staff, made £65 and a similar price was realised by a similar image, but with a motor mail van replacing the coach and horses.
In the foreign countries section, a collection of U.S.A. negro cards, estimated at £150, realised £427, despite the fact that the vendor was from America and the buyer had to pay an additional sum of £62 representing VAT on the hammer price of £310. The same vendor consigned other lots, which the auctioneers estimated cautiously, knowing that the hammer prices would be subject to the addition of VAT as well as the buyer’s premium. An American-formed Judaica collection of 300 cards, estimated £450, made £1,449, an anti-Jewish collection of 93, estimated at £600, made £1,207, an anti-Catholic collection of 400, estimated at £400, made £1,276 and a drinking, alcohol and abstinence collection of 1400, including moderns, estimated at £440, made £1,276.
Glamour collections sold well, as did comic. 480 assorted McGills realised £484 and 56 Louis Wains, largely cats, condition variable, estimated £400, made £708. 43 “Old Bill” by Bairnsfather made £71 and 400 topo art by Quinton a disappointing £142.