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William and Mary charger appraised by Henry Sandon
"I've seen you before," Henry Sandon tells a young owner with a collection
of porcelain. The 15-year-old explains that he met Henry two years ago,
when Henry advised him to add some Victorian Coronation pieces to his
porcelain collection. Previously the young man had only collected Jubilee
memorabilia but decided to follow Henry's advice. The owner has now also
acquired an extraordinary charger from the 1690s, decorated with the
likenesses of King William III and Queen Mary II, who ruled England jointly
at the end of the 17th century. Wondering aloud where the owner gets the
money to collect such fine objects, Henry says the piece is extremely rare
and valuableworth as much as £1,000 ($1,500). The boy confesses that he
does have "a bit of help from my dad," who he says finances most of this hobby.
Film lobby cards appraised by Marc Allum
The owner of a large collection of film lobby cards said it all began with
his dad, who used to collect film memorabilia as a boya hobby that he passed
to his young son. The boy now has thousands of stills, an interesting collection
Marc Allum admires, saying it contains some classic cinematic images, most of
which were publicity stills issued by the film companies. There is a lobby
card from Psycho, which was posted in the foyers of the cinemas. He also
notes a picture of Charlton Heston on a Vespa scooter on the set of Ben Hur,
looking "rather incongruous" in his outfit. Another photo shows Liz Taylor
giving a very sly wink on the set of Cleopatra. Yet another superb image is
of Boris Karloff as Frankenstein, asleep and with a cigarette in his hand.
Marc says these lobby cards are worth £30 to £40 ($45 to $60) each. He also tells the
owner he is "very impressed" with what he's seen of the collection and
encourages him to "carry on collecting!"
Collection of medals appraised by Roy Butler
Roy Butler is shown an outstanding group of medals by a young owner who
explains that during World War II, King George VI broadcast to the nation
that he would establish a new award to be called the George Medal. Around
that same time a man named Leonard Thorne was a policeman on patrol when
a bomb went off in a Tottenham Court Road pub. Thorne, along with an air
raid warden, risked his life to go in and help people out, and he was
subsequently given the new George Medal. Thorne later joined the Royal Air
Force and flew 31 missions in Lancaster bombers, each time bringing the
plane and crew back intact. For that reason he was also eventually awarded
the Distinguished Flying Cross. Roy explains that it is very
rare for anyone to have been awarded both a DFC and a George Medal. "This
is a wonderful, wonderful group," says Roy. He tells the owner that in the
collecting world the medals would usually be worth about £4,000 ($6,000) in total.
The combination of the DFC and George Medal for one person means, however,
that their value might exceed that number. The medals now reside in a museum
and Roy thinks it's wonderful to get to see them in the RAF Museum with an
authentic Lancaster bomber in the background.
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