From Colwyn Bay to Sotheby's London, my first sale of any artwork was a great venture into the unknown.
Whilst browsing the auction listings on the saleroom.com, something caught my eye, a framed, slightly worn poster on sale in Colwyn Bay, North Wales. Dating from 1887, the poster was a stylish advertisement for one of the earliest Ashes test series between the heroic England cricket team and mighty Australia. Typically Victorian in style, a player is shown fielding in the deep, whilst the crowd seem to look in any direction but at the action itself. Below the main picture, player vignettes complete the design (a precursor to the modern Panini football sticker albums).
Estimated to fetch between £50 and £100, I placed a conservative bid of £50. This would be enough to meet the minimum reserve, but wouldn't exactly be terrifying any auction sharks serious about winning this lot. It turn-out however, that my nifty fifty was serious enough and cricket fever in North Wales clearly hadn't hit yet. Soon enough the poster was rolling its way down the valleys, across the border and down the motorway to my home in Essex. I knew the poster would be of interest to any keen cricket fan and collectors of sporting memorabilia. After a bit of googling, I found Graham Budd auctions. An independent auctioneer, Graham holds two sales a year, selling a cornucopia of historical sporting goods in . Graham like the poster, valuing it between £300-500. Quids in! I thought.
On closer inspection of the slightly worn and torn poster in need of some tender care, Graham lowered the final catalogue estimate to £250 to £350. Keen to see it sell regardless of a small loss overall, I placed a modest £100 reserve. Come sale-day it sold for £140 in Sotheby's auction house, almost tripling the £50 hammer price in North Wales. When taking into account for both buying and selling commissions and delivery fee, I ended up £7.52 down. ): I had learnt a lot though, and had taken a poster from a village auction in North Wales to one of the biggest auction houses in the world. In terms of experiencing the cut and thrust world of the wheeler art dealer I was hooked!
