Antiques Quiz in aid of EndPolioNow

Antiques Quiz

in aid of EndPolioNow

5th April

At Richmond Village, Bridgemeadow Way,

Northampton NN4 5EB

Denise Cowling will introduce the evening and give a presentation of exhibits and oversee the quiz.

Denise is a Fellow of the Gemmological  Association (FGA) and has been a professional auctioneer for over 25 years.  She ran Merry’s auction rooms in Northampton until the foot & mouth outbreak closed the market in 2002. She now works at Gildings, the provincial auction house in Market Harborough, where she conducts regular auctions with Mark & Will Gilding.  Her speciality is gold & silver jewellery and precious stones, as well as antiques, works of art and collectable. She has appeared in a number of TV auction programmes and undertakes a few charity auctions each year for national and local charities.

£15 per ticket to include evening meal of Beef & Guinness stew with mashed potatoes & seasonal vegetables or vegetarian lasagne followed by fresh fruit salad and pouring cream Tea or Coffee.  Bar available from 6.30pm.

Introduction by Denise 6.45pm. Explanation of the Quiz, presentation of exhibits and issue of quiz sheets 6.55pm.  Meal 7.15pm Quiz answers 8.30pm Results and Presentation 9.00pm Raffle drawn 9.15pm.

REPORT

On Friday 5 April, we had another quiz evening at Richmond village.  This time, the theme was antiques and we were fortunate to have as our ‘compere’ the extremely-knowledgeable Denise Cowling, together with her ‘lovely assistant’, Andrew.

Denise must have spent a lot of time gathering together a couple of dozen artefacts, some antiques (i.e. more than 100 years old), and some twentieth century collectibles. She had compiled a quiz which enabled us to test our knowledge - or inspired guesswork - of these items, and other antique facts and figures. Who knew, for example, that a 1 carat diamond has 100 points?  Not me, for one.

We were served a tasty two-course meal by the lovely staff at Richmond and, fuelled by suitable beverages, we had plenty of time to study the artefacts Denise had brought along. On some questions, we had to rank three or four items in order of value.  It soon became clear that the intrinsic value of an item might not directly correlate with its potential salesroom price.  Not everything that is old is collectible these days.

Later in the evening, Denise provided us with the answers and entertained us with her many stories from the auction room.  Jackie Billings’ team won the prize for the most correct answers.

We had a lively raffle draw after this with alcoholic prizes proving especially popular.  The event was in aid of End Polio Now and it is heart-warming to hear from the treasurer that £448 was raised for that cause from the evening.

Our grateful thanks go to Denise, Andrew, the staff at Richmond and everyone else involved in the organisation.

Elspeth May