GAN News

10 March 2010

I ain’t afraid of no ghosts
 
If it exists, someone somewhere has tried to sell it at auction. And if it doesn’t exist – or at least if opinions are divided as to its status – then in all probability someone will have tried to sell it anyway.
 
Real time, physical auction houses tend to stay clear of the esoteric and the insubstantial but if you want to sell your soul, your imaginary lucky hat* or a ghost or two, you will find that there is a home for you on the internet – or if not a home, then at least a haunted house.
 
The most recent online ghost sale took place on 9 March 2010 when Avie Woodbury of Christchurch, New Zealand, sold a pair of ghosts.
 
"I would get things like the jug boiling itself, [hands] touching on the back of my neck, voices from other rooms, and items going missing then turning up in weird places," she explained. "The dog was mental, he wouldn't go into certain rooms and my brother's daughter would stay with me and she said she spoke to a little girl. I just want to get rid of them [the ghosts] as they scare me. But someone might like these to play with," she said.
 
The phantom duo had been captured in her house by an exorcist and had been cunningly trapped in two phials of holy water, which "sort of puts them to sleep," according to Ms Woodbury. The ghosts - said to be those of an old man and a young girl – went for NZ$2,000 (around £940) on the New Zealand Trade Me website, having attracted more than 200,000 page views.
 
The winning bidder was a company called Safer Smoke NZ, which produces electronic cigarette substitutes, although the company evidently has no idea what to do with the ghosts now it has won them. It is now inviting suggestions as to what they should do with them. Personally I think that they would be great aids for people who want to quit smoking. “If you don’t quit, you get haunted.” Me, I’d stub it out straight away…
 
* In 2005 a Cardiff City supporter offered striker Peter Thorne’s imaginary “lucky hat” for sale on eBay. Doubtless thanks to said titfer of fate, Thorne had been banging in the goals, scoring a very respectable 46 goals in 126 appearances for the Bluebirds. Sadly eBay withdrew the imaginary hat from sale on the not unreasonable grounds that it didn’t exist, but despite this bad omen, Norwich City signed him. And how did he do for the Canaries? Two goals in 42 appearances. If only they’d bought the hat too…

A woman is only a woman…

Staying with the weed, how much would you pay for a half-smoked cigar? Me neither. But when the cigar in question was puffed upon by one of the iconic figures of the 20th century (a man who was also perhaps the world’s most famous cigar smoker) it’s a different matter. Add unimpeachable provenance and an exact and historic moment when the smoke was abandoned, and you’ve got an originally unhealthy artefact that could add up to a very healthy price.
 
The cigar in question had belonged to Winston Churchill and while cigars that had once been his property are not that uncommon, ones that he had begun are understandably harder to find.
 
"I am not aware of many others that have survived after being half-smoked by the great man,” said Andrew Bullock, who organised the sale at G. A. Key auctioneers in Aylsham. "It was extremely rare for Churchill not to finish a cigar, so it must have been something very, very urgent that demanded his immediate attention in the cabinet room. As this was wartime, it is fascinating to speculate as to what it might have been that was so important.”
 
Since the cigar was put down on August 22, 1941 - the day when the advancing German army reached Leningrad and started the historic and bloody siege – it is not unlikely that it was this dramatic news that gave the Premier pause and made him reach for the ashtray.
 
The provenance and the date are strong thanks to an enterprising Downing Street valet, Nellie Goble, who grabbed the cigar and a sheet of Number 10 Downing Street headed paper, on which she scribbled a note to a friend saying: "Just a small souvenir to remind you at some future date of one of the greatest men that ever lived in England."

Nellie’s friend treasured the cigar and she eventually passed it on to her daughter, now a pensioner living in north Norfolk. The daughter (who wished to remain anonymous) kept the stub wrapped in the precious note in a drawer.

"It rarely comes out, so it seems better to sell it to someone who will truly appreciate it” she said. “If it doesn't fetch the earth, it won't break my heart. I just want it to go to somebody who will get some real pleasure from owning it."
 
“Not fetch the earth,” eh? The cigar was expected to make around £300 but in the end sold for £4,500.
 
Not bad for half a smoke, is it?

Beatles for sale

Anything that was written, touched, worn or half-eaten by the Beatles (remember George Harrison’s discarded toast?) has an auction value. Very often it is albums and photographs that have been (or that seem to have been) signed by the Fab Four that make the money. In their own way they are redolent of the period, but while they may be “right” they are not intrinsically that interesting.
 
Even if you ignore the many forgeries or contemporary secretary-signed items, The Beatles inscribed many thousands of record covers, autograph books and glossy 6” x 8”s and most of them are still around. A set of genuine autographs starts at about £800 for a signed piece of paper and rises rapidly for a signed album sleeve, depending on the record.
 
All four Beatles were rarely together in the latter years, having given up touring or being in the studio at the same time, so while signed copies of the With the Beatles (1963) or A Hard Day’s Night (1964) are not uncommon, signed copies of Sergeant Pepper (1967) or Abbey Road (1969) are rarer than Shane McGowan’s teeth. But even then, lovely though it would be to have such an item, it would lack the personal touch.
 
I don’t collect Beatles memorabilia but if I did, it wouldn’t be a signed sleeve that would set my heart racing, it would be something like the set list from the Beatles’1964, handwritten by John Lennon that was sold by Bamford's in February.
Although the Beatles used to play six ninety-minute sets every day during their Hamburg years, by 1964, twenty minutes or half an hour would do the trick, so it is quite likely that the hastily scribbled eight track list maps out the entire concert. The set was: I Saw Her Standing There, Roll Over Beethoven All My Loving, She Loves You, From Me to You, Boys, This Boy, Money and Twist and Shout.

Since his death and subsequent beatification, Lennon has become far and away the most collectable of the Beatles, but I still think that for a fan of the man or the band, a £4,200 hammer price for such a personal and unusual item has got to be cheap. I can't believe that Ringo’s set list (if such a thing exits) would have done nearly so well...

Government Auction News Team

Back to News Index

Bookmark this on Delicious