Auction Week at James and Sons

On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week James and Sons of Fakenham had their May auction. Tuesday was devoted to stamps and postal history, while Wednesday was a general auction, with lots of different types of stuff under the hammer. This post looks at some of the highlights of the two days.

TUESDAY – STAMPS ETC

I was working above the shop where the auction was taking place, so cannot comment on the sale as a whole. However lot 256 went to me, and was clearly uncontested given how low the hammer price was. These are the images that were available to the general public:

Time constraints limited the size of the image gallery I could produce for this lot, but my own interest in securing meant the gallery had to be as complete as I could reasonably make it.

Here are my own photos of the lot post acquisition, taken at home yesterday morning:

In the folder – for reaons that the final image will make clear I paired the Saint Kitts & Nevis item with something else with a Caribbean connection.

I already had a copy of the Kiribati cover, so I needed five slots in total, hence the earlier image.

DAY TWO

This sale started very quietly (I was watching from home), with lot 526 going to me uncontested. This item will be at the heart of at least one major blog post and possibly more, so I present only the image gallery I produced for it to go under the hammer:

The auction picked up a bit of momentum when some old Guinness advertising posters, all in excellent condition, went under the hammer. Five of the posters fared especially well, lots 622, 641, 658, 661 and 669, which all went for above the top estimates. Here are the images of those lots:

622 (two images – front and back)

641 (two images, front and back)

658 (three images, front, close up of main part, back)

661 (three images, front, close up of main part, and back)

669 (five images – front, close up of each the three ‘layers’ of the front, back)

The star lot of the auction was number 795, which massively exceeded the top estimate. Here is the gallery.

I did not have the luxury of time to make a really detailed assessment of this lot, but I did do a detailed gallery, and my choice of what to feature clearly did its job!

Some of the toy lots in the low 800s also fared exceptionally well with 805 and 806 almost doubling the top estimate, and lots 807, 814 and 815 also going above the top estimate.

The images for lots 805 and 806 were taken by a colleague and edited for me, with the secondary images (one for 805, two for 806) extracted by me from single individual images.

807 (eight images)

814 (six images)

815 (nine images)

PHOTOGRAPHS

There have been a lot of photographs in the body of this post, but I also include a gallery of my usual hobby photographs…

Surrey Topping The Table

There was another round of county championship fixtures from Friday to Monday. This post looks back at the action, starting with…

SURREY V WARWICKSHIRE

Surrey won the toss and put Warwickshire in to bat. The first day ebbed and flowed, with Ed Barnard batting well for Warwickshire, reaching the close on 96* in a score of 318-8, which looked eminently respectable for a side that had been put in to bat. Barnard completed his century early on the second morning, and Warwickshire ended on 343. The Surrey innings seemed to be going on similar lines, with Jamie Smith the main scorer, until Craig Miles injured himself while celebrating his fifth wicket of the innings. A big ninth wicket stand between Smith and Sean Abbott (batting a place lower than scheduled due to the unsuccessful use of Kemar Roach as nightwatch, and in any case better with the bat than most county number nines) took the game right away from Warwickshire. Abbott completed a fine hlaf century, and Smith, in a magnificent display, scoring at close to a run a ball even in the first innings of a championship match, went on to 155. Surrey finished with 464 all out, a lead of 121. Miles’ injury prevented him from batting, though he probably wouldn’t have done much in the face of a magnificent performance by Kemar Roach, who took 6-44 as Warwickshire just barely scraped past 200, leacing Surrey only 89 to get in the final innings. By the end of day three Surrey were 31-0, a mere 58 short of the target. Warwickshire’s choice of bowlers to start day four – Rob yates and Jacob Bethell – was tantamount to running up the white flag, and although Rory Burns got himself out along the way, Warwickshire were in the end flattered by the final margin of nine wickets. Ed Barnard had a magnificent match for Warwickshire, with three first innings wickets to set alongside his century, and had the match been remotely close, even if Warwickshire had lost it I would have had him as Player of the Match. However, in the end it was very one sided, so my own reckoning makes it a joint award to Jamie Smith and Kemar Roach. Surrey now sit 21 points clear at the top of division one, having played the same number of matches as second placed Essex. Essex may have the stronger best possible XI, but Surrey have by far the greater depth – injuries would trouble Essex to a much greater extent if and when they happen, as would an England call up for Sam Cook, which is on the cards.

ELSEWHERE

The county of my birth, Gloucestershire, recorded their first win in the competition since 2022. Lancashire suffered an embarrassing defeat which left them looking more than ever like relegation fodder (incidentally I suspect their new coach Dale Benkenstein will not be getting another coaching engagement any time soon – it was he who oversaw Gloucestershire’s winless 2023 campaign, which raises the question of just why Lancashire hired him). Kent v Worcestershire was the last match to end, when Worcestershire decided that 16 overs weren’t enough for them to take the last six wickets (Kent were still in arrears, so not able to shorten proceedings further by declaring).

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

England Women’s Unusual Route To Victory

The international cricket summer got underway yesterday with a T20 international between the England and Pakistan Women’s teams. This post looks at what happened in that match.

ENGLAND FIGHT BACK FROM ABYSMAL START

I missed the early part of the match due to a West Norfolk Autism Group commitment, so I cannot comment on the nature of the dismissals suffered by England near the start. However, I do know that at low water mark they were 11-4, not a position from which many sides have recovered in a T20I. By the time I was able to tune in Heather Knight and Amy Jones were restoring the situation (Knight made 49, Jones 37), and their good work was continued by Danielle Gibson and Sophie Ecclestone, Gibson in particular playing a superb innings to score 41* off just 21 balls. Ecclestone finished on 18*, also scored very quickly, and in the end England has 163-6 from their 20 overs. Not a mammoth total in a T20I, but more than Pakistan Women had ever successfully chased, and quite remarkable after such a dreadful start.

GLENN THE BOWLING HERO

Pakistan started brightly, but wickets began to fall too early for comfort. The slow decline of the Pakistan innings became a crash when Sarah Glenn came into the attack. Glenn took 4-12 from her four overs, a new career best in the format for her, and Pakistan were almost out of it at 89-9. The crash of wickets included a horror spell of three balls for the Pakistan skipper, in the course of which she ran her batting partner out, and then lost her own wicket to a poor shot. The tenth wicket pair did their best, but with over 70 runs needed and them being already well behind the clock it was always a matter ‘when’ and not ‘if’. They cobbled together a stand of 21, before the last wicket went down, giving England a win by 53 runs. England won comfortably in the end, but Pakistan had given them a scare or two along the way – definitively winning the Power Play overs in the England innings and arguably winning that same period of their own innings. Ultimately Knight, Jones, Gibson and Ecclestone rescued England from an awful start with the bat, and Glenn’s outstanding spell with the ball was the clincher when Pakistan batted.

PHOTOGRAPHS

I have absolutely masses of photographs to share, having been posting about the trip to Pensthorpe for the last week, while gathering many more pictures in this splendid Norfolk spring weather (as I type this I am sat outside in shorts and t-shirt, with the temperature officially 24 degrees, and a light breeze blowing, and temperatures have been hitting the low 20s consistently for some days)…

Pensthorpe – The Trailer Ride

Welcome to the final post in my series (posts 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 can be viewed by clicking the appropriate number). about the West Norfolk Autism Group trip to Pensthorpe. This post deals with the trailer ride (we had two booked, and I was on the second at 12 noon).

THE JOURNEY

There are some parts of Pensthorpe that cannot be accessed on foot, and others that sufficiently far from the starting point that doing so would take a very long time. The vehicle that pulls the trailer is a Land Rover Defender. In the course of the journey one sees some of the farm area, both old and new growth woodland, lakes, ponds that are a remnant of the last ice age and nesting sites of one sort and another for birds and bats. We got a glimpse of the Aberdeen Angus cattle but not the longhorns that they also have. The route takes in parts of two former railway routes which crossed the land – one was part of a major railway company, the other a smaller local route, and both were killed by Beeching in the 1960s. We also saw a family of greylag geese, with six youngsters. On a day like we had the absence of shelter was never an issue, and being in such an open vehicle did make photography easier. If you do not do the trailer ride you will never have anything close to a complete picture of Pensthorpe.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Here are my photographs from the trailer ride…

A nesting box for barn owls.

This is for terns.

bat boxes – ensuring that the bats can always be away from the direction of the sun (all the species in this area are tiny, with the pipistrelle the most frequent visitor).

The greylag goose family (four shots).

Pensthorpe: Flamingos and Cranes

Welcome to the penultimate post in my series about the West Norfolk Autism Group trip to Pensthorpe (posts 1, 2, 3 and 4 can be viewed by clicking the relevant number, and the final post, about the trailer ride, will appear tomorrow, one week after the trip took place).

FLAMINGOS AND CRANES

The Flamingo and Crane Enclosures are accessed in the same way when on the way round Pensthorpe. The path into the area that houses both enclosures arrives in between the two – flamingos one way, cranes the other. Although one cannot get close to the flamingos their enclosure is open, with nothing concealed. The cranes, of which Pensthorpe has four distinct species, are viewable only from a hide, which has four separate hatches through which one can look, one for each species. The cranes are one of many conservation projects being undertaken at Pensthorpe.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Here are the photographs I got of the cranes and flamingos:

Flamingo doing a cormorant impression – the feature image is a composite featuring this and the most impressive of the cranes.

This shelduck was near the path linking the flamingo and crane areas.

The East African Crowned Crane…

…and a close up of that ‘crown’.

Pensthorpe – The Waders Aviary

Welcome to the fourth post in my series about the West Norfolk Autism Group trip to Pensthorpe Natural Park (see here, here and here). Today I look at the Waders Aviary.

THE WADERS AVIARY

The Waders Aviary is accessed by a door from the gift shop/ viewing gallery area, and is the only part of the site accessible via that door – it is entirely self contained, and one must therefore fully intend to visit it. It is extremely well worth visiting. There is a walkway along one side of the aviary which is the only part of the enclosure that is accessible to the public. To prepare for the main photo gallery here is the information about which birds can be seen here:

PHOTO GALLERY

Now for the main gallery…

Pensthorpe 2024: The Sculptures and Artworks.

Welcome to the third post in my mini-series about the West Norfolk Autism Group’s trip to Pensthorpe on Saturday (see here and here). Today I focus on one particular aspect of the site – the artistic element thereof.

ART AT PENSTHORPE

Art is clearly highly appreciated by the people who run Pensthorpe Natural Park, with a number of nature inspired sculptures dotted around the site, at least one very artistic gate (I did actually use it for its intended purpose, as well as photographing it) and a bridge inspired by a great artist of the past. I do not know if Claude Monet ever visited Norfolk (I suspect not) but he would certainly recognize the bridge modelled on his own at Giverny. The artistic element undoubtedly enhances the overall experience.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Here are my photographs of the artistic elements of Pensthorpe (those that I managed to capture anyway).

The gate referred to above

Pensthorpe 2024: Around and About

Welcome to the second post in my mini-series about the WNAG day out at Pensthorpe Natural Park on Saturday. In this post I cover the stuff that does not fit in any of the more specialized posts that will follow. Here is a map of the site:

EXPLORING THE SITE

My general explorations occurred in three phases: before my first visit to the flamingo and crane areas, between that and my first visit to the waders area and between the trailer ride and my second visits to those two areas. On the last occasion I saw some of the stretch of the Wensum which winds through Pensthorpe (incidentally ‘Wensum’ derives from an Anglo-Saxon word meaning ‘winding river’ and it certainly does follow a winding course – Pensthorpe to Norwich is 23 miles by road – and 30 by river). Unfortunately none of the really exotic stuff (otters and voles in one stretch, and the eponymous birds that give Kingfisher Reach its name, while it is too early in the year for dragonflies to be present) was in evidence. The main sights were a huge variety of water birds.

PHOTOGRAPHS

I start with a couple of standalone pictures to help you with identifying the birds I photographed.

Now for the full gallery…

A harvest mouse habitat – these are very tiny creatures and the glass makes photographing one an extra challenge…

…but I managed one usable picture of it.

Pensthorpe 2024 – Setting the Scene

Yesterday was the West Norfolk Autism Group’s third annual outing to Pensthorpe Natural Park. This post will set the stage for a mini-series about the day.

THE PRELIMINARIES

Some of the group were making their own way to Pensthorpe, but there was also a coach laid on which was picking up and dropping back off at Gaywood. The departure time of the coach was set for 9:30AM, so I aimed to arrive at the pick up point at 9:15. I did exactly that, walking by way of the Gaywood river path, and arriving at the pick up point just as the coach was pulling in. We set off promptly, and the roads were clear. On arrival at Pensthorpe a couple of us were presented with trophies from the bowling event on April 7th.

My trophy for winning the adults section.

The trophy in its new location, next to The Mallard.

PLANNING THE DAY

Only three parts of the day were fixed: I was booked on a trailer ride at noon, lunch was scheduled for 2PM, and the coach was making its return journey to Gaywood at 3:30PM. For the rest the day was what one chose to make of it. I will now introduce the various parts of my experience, on what was a perfect day for the event – warm and sunny but not absolutely roasting.

PENSTHORPE GENERAL

One starts by putting on a wristband that indicates that admission is paid for, and then proceeds through the gift shop. I opted to start with the exit at the far end of the viewing gallery, which takes one straight to the water fowl. There were many interesting species…

SCULPTURES/ ART

I will be producing a post about this aspect of Pensthorpe. Suffice it to say for the moment that there are a number of sculptures and other art pieces to be seen along the way. Here are a few images to whet your appetite…

I put this bridge among the art elements because it is inspired by Monet’s bridge at Giverny.

THE FLAMINGOS AND CRANES

My two visits to these birds (either side of the trailer ride) will get a full blog post. For the moment…

A flamingo doing a cormorant impression.

Group shot of flamingos

The most remarkable of the four crane species at Pensthorpe, the East African Crowned Crane.

THE WADERS

The wading birds have their own special enclosure, with a netting roof over it. I visited it twice, as with the flamingos and cranes, and will be giving it a full blog post. For the moment…

THE TRAILER RIDE

This experience is not to be missed, and will get full blog post treatment. For the moment…

The trailer.

Aberdeen Angus cattle grazing.

The Maltings

The structure in the middle of this lake is for migrating terns.

bat boxes – all round the tree trunk so that the bats can always be away from direct sunshine during the day.

A greylag goose family with six youngsters walking close to the trailer.

Somerset Going Well Against Essex

It is a grim, grey day here in Norfolk (after several fine ones), but there is play happening in the County Championship. The main body of this post will look at developments in that match so far. Yesterday saw voting in various local, regional and Police and Crime Commissioner elections (only the latter for us in King’s Lynn, but I made sure to vote – Green of course). Results are coming in, and the Tories, from an already poor starting position, have had an absolute nightmare overall. Labour, the main opposition party, are not benefitting as much from this as they ought – smaller parties and well organized Independents have been gaining more in general. In relative terms the biggest gainers are my own Green party, who have gained a number of seats, including at least one, in Peterborough, where it looks very like Tory votes went mainly to Labour and some to the hard right Reform UK while a greater number of previous Labour voters switched to Green, resulting overall in “Green GAIN from Conservative”.

SOMERSET IN CONTROL

Somerset won the toss and put Essex in to bat. Dean Elgar was out cheaply, which is something of a rarity, and Somerset built on that start, picking up wickets throughout the morning. By lunch the score was 97-5. Essex suffered a body blow not very long after the resumption, when Westley was bowled by Lewis Gregory for 43 to make it 111-6. A rash shot by Harmer, a great delivery from Pretorius to bowl Harry Duke and a good delivery from Jake Ball to find the edge of Sam Cook’s bat have added to the wicket tally. Essex are now 150-9, with Snater (born in Zimbabwe, now officially Dutch and a cousin of former England white ball international Jason Roy) having brought up that score with a four. Somerset have bowled very well overall and are currently well placed.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

I got off one stop earlier than usual on my way back from work yesterday as the weather was ideal for walking . This enabled me to photograph St Faith’s Churcb