Auctioneers are extremely busy at this time of year.  Unfortunately this has a lot to do with the cold weather. Just in the last week, one local solicitor has sent me three probate valuations.   With five to six hundred lot sales, early starts and late nights it has been a hard month, but it has been worthwhile.

One of the first calls this month was to a very interesting man who took me to a flat just outside Harrow.  As always, on the way, he was concerned that he might be wasting my time.

The local estate agent had recommended he find someone to come in and simply clear the property, but common sense had prevailed and eventually he contacted me.  The property he took me to was built at the turn of the century and its occupants had obviously travelled a great deal at some point.  To my amazement all the light fittings and shades were French glass and the wall lights themselves had originated at Daum Freres and the glass works in Nancy.  This was unusual as most of this glassware was produced industrially and the name is synonymous with cameo pieces.

It is always nice to see pairs of items and in this house there were many - from a pair of 1920s Chippendale-style occasional tables through to a rather fine pair of glass lusters.  As soon as I walked in I turned to the gentleman and told him he certainly hadn't wasted my time.

He had been offered £350 to clear the contents of the house. The glass lustres alone were worth between £400 and £600.  The total value of the house contents was in excess of £9000.  I'm so glad he didn't take his first offer.

The second call of note was down on the south coast, where I greeted a gentleman outside a modern house in a small cul-de-sac.  He sat me down in the dining room and talked to me for half an hour about the antiques that had been in his family for a number of generations.

In his dining room there was a pair of Satsuma vases almost six inches high and covered all over with Samurai village scenes and flora.  The vases will fetch up to £6000, should he choose to sell them.

He then showed me a number of photographs of marble busts and a fine pair of French Sevre vases.  These vases were the best thing I have seen for a number of months.  My mouth started to water as he told me about their history and how he obtained them must after the war.

After a while he suggested I took a look at the few items he had upstairs and led me to the landing where he moved a rather large wardrobe. Hidden behind it was a small cupboard which contained the vases he had previously shown in photo form and a number of other fine pieces.

The date on the vases was 1795 but depicted on them was a scene of a battle that took place in 1812.  Clearly the vases had been painted several years after they were made.

With the provenance and history, which I am still researching, we may be able to realise in excess of £15,000 for the pair - a very nice retirement nest-egg for anyone to look forward to.