Charity Auction at Mirfield raises £47,800
On October 22nd with the help of his brother George Gribben of Bloomfield Auctions Belfast, some very generous donations of antique and collectable items from friends of the church, and with a little promotion from UKauctioneers, Father John Gribben, a member of the Community of the Resurrection at Mirfield, pulled off an incredibly successful charity auction and is now one step closer to fulfilling the target of £1,600,000 needed to rennovate their historic church.
After the sale he wrote to us with the following words:
Dear Elly,
We had a fantastic auction. I’ve never enjoyed myself so much. When all the money is in we will have raised £51,000 – 47,800 on the day and 3700 that I raised in pre-auction sales.
I worked from 8.30am – 9.00pm without stopping to eat setting up and lotting up on Thursday and came in on Friday morning at 8.00 to finish off but before I had finished the viewing public (not due until ten) had surged in and I joined by my helpers were in for the long haul until 7.00pm (I think someone put a beef sandwich in my hand and I must have eaten it for it wasn’t auctioned). My brother George (Bloomfield Auctions, Belfast) arrived at 8.00pm and we went through every lot putting estimates on the auction sheets and correcting my errors. We finished at 1.00am Saturday with him declaring that we had done an excellent job, that we were bound to have a magnificent auction and if I ever wanted a job he would take me on.
He was right about the auction. It was entertainment of the highest quality. The auctioneer put on a virtuoso performance to a truly responsive audience who broke the stillness of the room with applause whenever the battle for a desirable lot was concluded. The assistants (myself included) all amateurs moved with perfect timing ensuring that each lot was available when required and a team on the cash desk (again with no experience of auctions) dealt with a heavy traffic of successful bidders with efficiency and good humour.
The star moment was when the Mouse furniture went for £17,800. The next big Lot was the Simon Palmer landscape at £4,000. The African Madonna by Leon Underwood failed to achieve the reserve but it sold privately afterwards for £3,500. In some ways even more exciting were the Lots that went for around £1,000 – a set of war medals, an icon and a beautiful ivory ‘Ecce Homo’. The most intriguing came from the 30 year old contents of a someone’s garage which included a first edition of Dombey and Son, three boxes of antique books, two boxes of 19th century ephemera including signatures of Palmerston, Wilberforce and Napoleon. The donor said ‘If they are no use to you just throw them out.’ The result? We raised £60,000+ - not too bad for amateurs.
Some of the Star Lot Items that were Auctioned on October 22nd. The Mouseman furniture fetched £17,800, the Simon Palmer Landscape fetched £4,000 and the African Madonna by Leon Underwood was sold privately for £3,500
View their Facebook page here for more information about the appeal and pictures of the items sold at auction
Facebook: Community of the Resurrection Church Appeal
View UKauctioneers.com Facebook page here
http://www.facebook.com/pages/UKauctioneerscom/87567752886