“IT’S here to sell” was the encouraging call from Caroline Hawley leading a charity auction – and sell the items did, raising £15,420 for St Thomas’s Church in Delph.
In just over two hours, 174 lots went under the hammer of the television antiques expert Caroline, star of Bargain Hunt and Flog It!, during the online auction.
The items included a myriad of jewellery, artefacts, heirlooms and treasures which were donated by parishioners and locals.
The money raised will go towards meeting the £60,000 overspend on an ambitious £500,000 renovation project recently carried out by the church.
Ahead of the auction, Caroline said: “We are not charging a seller’s commission or lotting fee so the church will get the hammer price returned to them. Fingers crossed they make ‘lots’ of money”.
Bidders – who tuned in from across the UK as well as France, Germany, the Netherlands and even Japan and America – snapped up the items to raise the impressive total.
Lot 11 was one of Caroline’s favourites – a leather top hat box by A J White, Hatter, London with two top hats. It was also popular with bidders, raising £480.
The item which attracted the highest price of £600 was a 9ct gold double chain bracelet while a 9ct gold half hunter pocket watch by J W Benson, London, raised £550.
“We will dance again!” exclaimed Caroline as she auctioned a vintage French beaded evening dress for £440.
Other popular items included a yellow metal bracelet (£340), a Chinese silk embroidered wall hanging in silk and metallic thread (£340) and a ladies 9ct gold Rolex wristwatch (£320).
One bidder paid £320 for a vintage blouse while another added £310 to the church’s pot by purchasing a Victorian full gold sovereign from 1888.
A Victorian 9ct gold brooch, 9ct gold fine chain (broken) together with various gold earrings and earrings with 9ct gold fittings was all scooped for just £240.
And £230 was the successful bid for a quantity of gold while an Everest expedition 1924 postcard raised £200.
Only two of the 174 items were unsold – a short squirrel jacket and a 1940s musquash fur coat.
The items were sold as part of Hawley’s Auctioneers Antiques and Fine Art Auction over two days (February 20-21) at North Cave, East Yorkshire.
To view the church lots plus nearly 1,600 others go to https://hawleys.info/auctions/2021-02-20/
Don’t forget to pick up a copy of the March edition of the Independent to read full story.
