Poor Old Moldy Warp!

We had a donation of really old stuff over the weekend, books, bibles, pottery and other bits.

I really love looking and discovering more about these finds and the history of them, although its frustrating at times when you know nothing about the item or where its come from! Only thing left to do is raise money out of it, that is the point why we’re here and why your reading this. Well usually our volunteers draw my attention to suspect looking objects that may hide some high value such as Wade and Alfred Meakin pottery, if this happens we put to one side and we contact head office who research a little more into the items and then that gives us a rough idea of what we should sell it for so we don’t under sell. I mean it has happened somewhere in a charity shop where somebody has put 50p on an item and forgot to put the extra 00s on the end. It’s all about a keen eye, wit and common sense.

But what happens with us is the staff get carried away.....one for example started taking blackpool souvenir ashtrays and saying she thought they was worth something and I should put a good price on them or at the very least send them to head office. Now don’t get me wrong I don’t know everything (well i don’t want to be modest) but I am pretty sure these aren’t going to be featured on “cash in the attic” any time soon but you have to keep an open mind all the same.

Funny thing is sometimes I look at something new and think if this survives a 1000 years or even a 100 it will be classed as an antique and lots of interest and value, I’m currently putting together a time capsule to bury.

 Anyway the title of this blog is an extract from an antique children’s book and I thought it summed up some nice Bibles. Holy Bibles. Very large altar Bibles and inside they are classed as family bibles. They are dark leather bound with gold edges and little gold leaf clasps, so wonderful. I love things like this I have a 200 year old one at home and I love it and its without binding! These here are fully leather bound (no pun) beautiful.  Anyway I’m uncertain of the value they are being investigated as we speak but here are some photos.

These Bibles are going a little mouldy on the pages, they are dated 1822 so that is to be expected if they have been damp in someone’s garage or loft, hence the title!

One thing my momma told me never to do (and she still does) is never to throw Bibles away so I don’t, at one point we had a shelf full of bibles we could have opened up our confession box.

The point is that this job and its “content” if you like is vast and interesting as you come into contact with many eccentric and obscure objects of interest and history that you constantly learn and you learn from. 

I’m like a walking random encyclopaedia but I’m not sure I’m learning anything really useful I only recently discovered what a banana hanger was. I mean seriously? I just put my bananas in a bowl and have done with it but people do like choice and that is what we offer. We don’t discriminate with our own tastes because a charity shop is like an “Aladdins cave” and people expect a bit of everything right? - I know I do variety is the spice of life and one of the most interesting aspects of this job is what people buy.