Thomas Turner
Trade Member
- Joined
- Mar 22, 2017
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- 15,559
- Reaction score
- 81
There are valuation days and then there are valuation days.
Our good friend Peter Cockwill assisted in this event at the iconic big trout fishery, Dever Springs. Peter runs the fishery two days a week, organising, guiding, teaching, and water management. Even he will say, he never expected to be the tea boy for eight hours, sorry Peter. With a scheduled start of 9am I decided to get to the lodge early, 7.50am to meet with Peter and build the TT stall.
A few cars were already in the car park. I assumed they were early morning trout anglers. I was wrong, they were at the front of the charge. Immediately I was back in the car park, looking through collections for valuation and for sale. A happy jovial atmosphere all day. By 10am there was a queue of 15 clients all waiting for valuations and this continued all day.
Peter adopted the role of catering manager and we set about the day’s work.
Many fascinating items came in. I met a float maker, a musician, a house clearance specialist, a Royal Doulton engineer, and three sisters from the south coast with their late fathers’ tackle collection. A mix of greenheart rods, a wicker laundry basket filled with odd reels and accessories, and a stick! I’m sure the ladies still owe me a coffee.
A rare Hardy Golden Sovereign numbered set came in, in a fitted wooden attaché case. Hardy, Orvis, Sage, Shimano, Penn Intrepid, B James, Allcock’s rods & reels kept coming and the queue was getting longer by the minute. Car park at overflow, people parked where they could and chatted in the glorious sunshine until we met.
Later appeared a magnificent Edward Barder rod and two Cooper cased fish; a pair of Tench and a huge Roach in bow front cases.
Ryan, a rod builder colleague brought a large collection of restored and original rods to view and chat through. He intends to collect every single model of cane and wooden rod Hardy ever built. Currently, at 81 examples he’s a little way off the 321 total needed but we all need a challenge.
Items bought include the Hardy set above; a fine 3” wide drum early Allcock’s Aerial, Dave Swallow reel, brass, wood, and alloy reels, 1904 Hardy Perfect, Zeniths, Marquis, Orvis, Danielsson reels plus a selection of boat and general sea fishing tackle. Antique wicker creels followed by two beautifully fully restored coarse fishing rods.
Finally, and exhausted after 7 1/2 hours in the car park valuing hundreds of items I retreat to the lodge for the first coffee of the day, as yet no food. As the kettle clicked on, in came the last visitor at 4pm.
His great grandfather was an engineer and following in his footsteps he’s fascinated with model lathes, restoring clocks and machinery.
He brought with him a Holtzapffel Victorian fly-tying vice to show, not sell. His grandfather collected the 5 editions of Holtzapffels’s book Turning and Mechanical Manipulations. Originally intended to be a series of 6 sadly Charles Holz’ died before he could complete the last edition making it a 5 out of 6 set.
An interesting tale with no family fishing connection. They now have the rare vice and 5 books set from the 1860-80s period to cherish.
It would have been rude to leave Dever Springs without casting a line. Having seen the massive carved wooden trout at the lakeside I selected what I thought to be an appropriate lure. Peter was less impressed but resolute in not lending me a rod and reel.
I bought two copies of his new book Fly Fishing Trout in the small still waters which he kindly signed and helped me on my way.
A great day all around, met interesting people, TT customers, and have many collections to view over the coming weeks. Peter had people interested in fishing and so everyone was a winner. Many thanks to Peter, we have agreed to do it all again in the future.
If you have a tackle shop or fishery, give me a call (details below) to discuss hosting a valuation day. It is free, and it brings new business to your door offering sales opportunities.
Our next valuation day is at Sportfish, Theale, in Reading, the spiritual home of Thomas Turner. Look forward to seeing you there on Saturday 1st October.
Contact details:
John Stephenson – 01782 698787 / 07548871985
john@thomasturner.com
The post Update: Dever Springs Valuation day Saturday 20th August 2022 appeared first on Thomas Turner Fishing Antiques.
Continue reading...
Our good friend Peter Cockwill assisted in this event at the iconic big trout fishery, Dever Springs. Peter runs the fishery two days a week, organising, guiding, teaching, and water management. Even he will say, he never expected to be the tea boy for eight hours, sorry Peter. With a scheduled start of 9am I decided to get to the lodge early, 7.50am to meet with Peter and build the TT stall.
A few cars were already in the car park. I assumed they were early morning trout anglers. I was wrong, they were at the front of the charge. Immediately I was back in the car park, looking through collections for valuation and for sale. A happy jovial atmosphere all day. By 10am there was a queue of 15 clients all waiting for valuations and this continued all day.
Peter adopted the role of catering manager and we set about the day’s work.
Many fascinating items came in. I met a float maker, a musician, a house clearance specialist, a Royal Doulton engineer, and three sisters from the south coast with their late fathers’ tackle collection. A mix of greenheart rods, a wicker laundry basket filled with odd reels and accessories, and a stick! I’m sure the ladies still owe me a coffee.
A rare Hardy Golden Sovereign numbered set came in, in a fitted wooden attaché case. Hardy, Orvis, Sage, Shimano, Penn Intrepid, B James, Allcock’s rods & reels kept coming and the queue was getting longer by the minute. Car park at overflow, people parked where they could and chatted in the glorious sunshine until we met.
Later appeared a magnificent Edward Barder rod and two Cooper cased fish; a pair of Tench and a huge Roach in bow front cases.
Ryan, a rod builder colleague brought a large collection of restored and original rods to view and chat through. He intends to collect every single model of cane and wooden rod Hardy ever built. Currently, at 81 examples he’s a little way off the 321 total needed but we all need a challenge.
Items bought include the Hardy set above; a fine 3” wide drum early Allcock’s Aerial, Dave Swallow reel, brass, wood, and alloy reels, 1904 Hardy Perfect, Zeniths, Marquis, Orvis, Danielsson reels plus a selection of boat and general sea fishing tackle. Antique wicker creels followed by two beautifully fully restored coarse fishing rods.
Finally, and exhausted after 7 1/2 hours in the car park valuing hundreds of items I retreat to the lodge for the first coffee of the day, as yet no food. As the kettle clicked on, in came the last visitor at 4pm.
His great grandfather was an engineer and following in his footsteps he’s fascinated with model lathes, restoring clocks and machinery.
He brought with him a Holtzapffel Victorian fly-tying vice to show, not sell. His grandfather collected the 5 editions of Holtzapffels’s book Turning and Mechanical Manipulations. Originally intended to be a series of 6 sadly Charles Holz’ died before he could complete the last edition making it a 5 out of 6 set.
An interesting tale with no family fishing connection. They now have the rare vice and 5 books set from the 1860-80s period to cherish.
It would have been rude to leave Dever Springs without casting a line. Having seen the massive carved wooden trout at the lakeside I selected what I thought to be an appropriate lure. Peter was less impressed but resolute in not lending me a rod and reel.
I bought two copies of his new book Fly Fishing Trout in the small still waters which he kindly signed and helped me on my way.
A great day all around, met interesting people, TT customers, and have many collections to view over the coming weeks. Peter had people interested in fishing and so everyone was a winner. Many thanks to Peter, we have agreed to do it all again in the future.
If you have a tackle shop or fishery, give me a call (details below) to discuss hosting a valuation day. It is free, and it brings new business to your door offering sales opportunities.
Our next valuation day is at Sportfish, Theale, in Reading, the spiritual home of Thomas Turner. Look forward to seeing you there on Saturday 1st October.
Contact details:
John Stephenson – 01782 698787 / 07548871985
john@thomasturner.com
The post Update: Dever Springs Valuation day Saturday 20th August 2022 appeared first on Thomas Turner Fishing Antiques.
Continue reading...