What Will You Do ?

[kronckew]

What's gonna happen to your collection?
arrgh! there was a auction series on tv lunchtime called 'cash in the attick' where someone calls in & sets a target for something, an amount for they want to do, like today's 'take flying lessons'. the tv channel films them and an antiques expert as they rummage thru the house looking for stuff to auction off.

today there was a retired lady who husband had died, they came up with the usual silverware, antique pictures, pottery, etc. when she remembered an old box of junk from her husbands collections that he'd had proudly displayed on the wall. she'd taken them down, put them in an old wooden box by the garden shed & forgot them, after all they were just a few old swords and knives,too martial for a proper english working class home.

the presenter had a good rummage, i saw a few victorian officers swords & sabres, a silver hilted shamshir in a decorated scabbard, at least two 19c kukhris, and more arabic,russian, japanese, and oriental swords and knives , all rusting away nicely in the english weather, the presenter took one out waved it about and said how wonderful it's engraving was as he stabbed it into the lawn & left it quivering upright.

anyway, they sold the stuff at a general auction (not even a specialist one), the other stuff, except for a mini-mosaic painting, went for estimate or under, then the weapons came up, they were sold in 3 lots, and went for a total of over three times the 'experts' estimate, well over a couple thousand pounds.

the moral is let your family know about the value of your collection - had this woman not thought they were just junk, she might not have had them out in the garden rusting away & had the 'antiques' expert not cavalierly underestimated their worth while abusing them & had put them in a proper specialist auction as individual items, she might have recieved two or three times that. - and the new owner would have got to enjoy them in better condition for when he passes them on.

[VANDOO]

NECHESH YOU AND I THINK ALIKE, I WAS CONSIDERING THE VIKING TRIP TO VALHALLA WITH MY SWORDS AS WELL

WHAT I WILL DO IS A COMBINATION OF THE ABOVE PLANS WHILE MY CHILDREN OR GRANDCHILDREN MAY WANT ONE ITEM TO REMEMBER ME BY AND THAT MAY NOT BE A WEAPON MOST WILL BE SOLD. IF THERE WERE A MUSEUM THAT WAS DEDICATED TO THE TYPES OF WEAPONS I HAVE AND WOULD MAKE USE OF THEM FOR DISPLAY OR TO FORM AN IMPORTANT REFRENCE COLLECTION I WOULD HELP THEM SET IT UP. UNFORTUNATELY I KNOW OF NO SUCH MUSEUM IF I HAD A HISTORICALLY IMPORTANT ITEM IN MY COLLECTION I WOULD CONTACT THE COUNTRY OF ORIGIN AND SEE IF THEY WERE INTRESTED IN GETTING IT AND DISPLAYING IT THERE. UNFORTUNATELY I DON'T HAVE ANYTHING LIKE THAT IN MY COLLECTIONS. GIVEN THE MUSEUMS DRIFT TO POLITICAL CORRECTNESS I DON'T SEE MUCH FUTURE FOR WEAPONS,STONE ARTEFACTS, BUGS,SHELLS OR OTHER COLLECTIONS FROM NATURE BEING DISPLAYED IN FUTURE. THAT WOULD BE GLORIFING WAR AND VILONCE OR THE RAPE OF NATURE ACCORDING TO THE PRESENT ACADEMIC AND PRESS INDOCTRINATIONS. SO THE ONLY WAY MUSEUMS MIGHT GET SOME OF MY COLLECTIONS WOULD BE IF THEY BUY THEM OR IF THINGS CHANGE EITHER OF WHICH I DOUBT WILL HAPPEN.

I PREFER TO LET ITEMS GO TO COLLECTORS WHO TRULY APPRECIATE THEM AND SPECIALIZE AND STUDY A PARTICULAR TYPE. THE LESS EXPENSIVE EXAMPLES WILL PROBABLY GO TO THE BEGINNING COLLECTORS TO HELP THEM GET STARTED AND BUILD THEIR EXPERIENCE, INTREST AND COLLECTIONS. IN MY AREA THERE DOSEN'T SEEM TO BE ANY UPCOMING COLLECTORS SO SELLING ETHINOGRAPHIC WEAPONS AT A GUN SHOW HERE WOULD BE A WASTE OF TIME AS ONLY EBAY DEALERS WOULD BUY. IF IT IS GOING THE EBAY ROUTE I WOULD RATHER DO IT MYSELF SO PERHAPS SOMEDAY I MAY BECOME A, "SHUDDER" EBAY DEALER