St Patrick’s Day Auction….

I think the luck of the Irish was with us!

A very interesting sale again! No doubt this has been a good winter for us.  Great items coming through…big crowds…fair prices…can’t ask for much more! We had 218 bidders register, and some from as far away as Sudbury, Hamilton, Niagara Falls, and some places in Ontario I have never heard of.  Scotland Ontario? We were running in two rings for a fair part of the day, sold 840 lots, and yes I know it gets pretty noisy and for some a little confusing, but that is the only way to handle a sale this size. However, I am attempting to scale down the sales a bit.  Ok, you have heard that before.  I wanted to do large, good sales in the winter months, and now I will try and make them good, slightly smaller sales, for the spring and summer months. I have a large backlog of smaller items to take care of, and I will work them through the sales along with the quality pieces coming in.  I am very fortunate that the phone keeps ringing, the good stuff keeps coming in, and I am trying very hard to accommodate everyone.  This last sale we had 35 different consignors, so at times it is a bit of a juggling act! This past sale we had some highs and lows (as always).  I was very pleased to sell the rare Mickey Mouse book for $1500.  Primitives were mostly strong in price, and the glass and china was doing much better this sale.  Nice Aladdin lamp sold for $575.00  Some of the large furniture pieces did fine, but then a few went flat.  Did we really sell a nicely carved oak sideboard with high back mirror for $150?  Yes, unfortunately we did, but that is what auctions are all about. This being a St.Patrick’s Day auction we adorned ourselves accordingly, and Donnie and Charlie went all out! (photo above for Donnie). Also it was two days before Mom’s birthday, so we sang happy birthday and presented Mom with a nice pot of flowers.  Thanks Dave and Carol Beasley for the flowers!  Hard for most people to believe, but Mom is now 82 and still working as hard as ever with us.  She works a ten hour day doing the setup and another ten or twelve hour day on auction day.  She has clerked every sale for the past 16 years!  I keep telling her she should slow down a little, and she keeps telling me she will let me know when she thinks it is too much, and that ends that discussion! So here is the info on the Mickey Mouse book. A book that created controversy when it was first published, and is controversial to this day! The book was the 1932 Mickey Mouse Annual #3, printed in Canada in 1933. When it was released in England in 1932 it was banned due to racist language. That’s right, Walt Disney banned!  There were only a few copies that made it into circulation, and it is reported that one sold recently for 54,000 pounds. Ours was the Canadian version, and I could find very little info on it.  It’s as though the Canadian version did not exist… but we had it! The opening chapter had Mickey and Minnie in Africa, in confrontation with the natives.  The first chapter is laced with racist comments, names and descriptions of the native Africans.  That’s about as much as I am going to say about that. So the question is…was Walt Disney racist?  You have to look at the book in the context of the times, but even by 1932 standards,  I am sure the language would have been offensive to most people.  It was offensive enough to have it banned in England.  It clearly states that the book was “authorized by Walter E. Disney”.  So I would leave it to you to draw your own conclusions. The book was complete, in good condition and sold for $1500.00 That’s what keeps this business interesting! To View A Video Presentation Of This Auction Click On This Link Rob