H & H Buxton auction today.

Duxford War Museum today hosted another H & H Auction with 142 lots of petroliana to get the day started.
Quality was mixed but generally poor. Prices however were very strong with a broad range of bidders, not only in the room, but also on the phone & internet.
I suspect more collectors went home to upgrade the valuations of their collections, rather than with items to add to their garage.
Personally I was delighted to add an extremely rare early Hammond Model "C" to my collection which was largely complete with all functions working. Still a project for further restoration, but the first British pre war pump I have added to my collection for two years. A good day.
I also bought a 99 year old Combine Motor Spirit enamel sign that will be a future restoration project.
Aston Gary bought the bargain of the day! A very nice early double sided Avon Tyres sign. No doubt he will post pictures soon.
Two friends I went with returned home empty handed , amazed at the prices acheived.
Some particular items, £2,000 plus commission for a set of brass check measures, £1,500 for a G&B T8 pump, and £1650 plus comm for an unrestored Michelin compressor!
We await the next auction in this busy season but suspect more stunning prices with new collectors continuing to join our hobby.
Alan.

New Petroliana blog

Fantastic idea @Alan Chandler, I have to say though it has taken me some time to get to grips with, making new profiles is time consuming so i hope everyone can find the time to work their way through it. I think in the long term it could be beneficial to our group and hobby.

How I started collecting by Alan Chandler.

                 Collecting Petroliana for me was an accident!

    It happened about twelve years ago after I had completed building a large new garage. There was space for eight cars but loads of bare brick walls. I decided I needed some old enamel signs to add  atmosphere.

   My wife and I headed off to the John Atkinson auction with the catalogue marked up with all our proposed purchases. We arrived to a room packed with several hundred people and prices reaching five times the catalogue guide price. We didn't buy a single sign! However we did return with three old petrol pumps.
   I bought them as "restored", but soon realised I could probably do better. I spent the next couple of months doing them again and found it most enjoyable. Time to try and buy some more pumps. After a couple of years I had about twenty pumps mostly fitted with reproduction globes. Initially my only interest was restoring pumps but gradually it developed into the associated enamel signs, original globes, tins and Petroliana.
  I next bought a collection of about ten pumps imported from Australia. I didn't really know what I was doing but it seemed a good idea at the time. Shortly afterwards I received a phone call from Theo Van der Zon, who had also been on the trail of this collection of pumps. I think I was only able to buy them because Theo had been given the wrong telephone number!
  However, as so often happens in the Petroliana collecting circle, the best thing to come from buying the Australian pumps was subsequently meeting Theo. He has a great collection of pumps, (even then 300 plus), and a vast experience of the subject. Later we travelled to Hershey in America to their massive autojumble & still today we share a stand twice a year at Beaulieu.
  As my interest developed into the wider sphere of Petroliana I attended most of the national events buying original globes, enamel signs, tins & associated junk, (as described by my friends!)  Mike and Jackie Berry were regular suppliers, not just of items, but of knowledge about the entire hobby.
  Whilst I had initially subscribed to magazines and bought the books, they were all based on American items and brands which are mostly quite different from British products. There was almost nothing published about the British side of the hobby and research information was hard to find. Gradually by meeting and talking to other collectors I assembled the start of some information about the pumps I was restoring. My collection by this time had grown to about 40 pumps with globes, signs etc. It was time to share with others what I had enjoyed doing. I decided to publish "Petroliana...The First Book"!
  It's now eleven years since I started collecting and it's been a pretty full time hobby. My garage has been extended three times, now contains about 120 pumps, 600 enamel signs, 200 original globes, hundreds of tins and in total a couple of thousand items. I have now written and published three books on our hobby and a website, www.petroliana.co.uk .
  The best thing I have gained though, is meeting some great people, enthusiastic, interesting and prepared to share a hobby with others.
 

Do we need a Petroliana Blog?

                                          

                  
                   Most hobbies have an endless series of magazines & clubs relating to their hobby.
                                In the U.K. we have virtually nothing.
 
         Are we illiterate, disinterested, solitary people?
Are there just not enough of us involved in our hobby to make it worth the effort of publishing regular Petroliana stuff?

                 ...I don't think either of these statements are true.

  The three books I have published on Petroliana have always been enthusiastically received with an instant demand for more on the subject. My website, www.petroliana.co.uk receives thousands of "hits" every week. Beaulieu Autojumble, the best place to meet other collectors, gets record visitors in their thousands every year. Richard Edmond's specalist Petroliana auctions are growing in frequency and volume every year with demand and prices very strong. New collectors come to the hobby constantly, helped by the great interest in classic cars and motoring for pleasure.

                               SO, LET'S DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

            This Blog space is available for you to exchange information, photo's and your hobby with other collectors. It's totally free, designed for enthusiasts and has no commercial affiliations.
            Here you can tell how you got involved with collecting Petroliana, write about your special area of interest, whether pumps, signs, globes, tins etc. or a particular brand. You can share techniques on restoration, show photo's of old garages, or advise others about replicas to avoid. Collectors are always interested in new finds and additions to your garage or shed.
           
                                                            HAVE A GO!

                 You don't need to be a professional to post something on this blog. If the spelling is wrong or the picture not quite perfect, it doesn't matter. Fellow collectors want to share your interest and will thank you for having a go!

          I'll start things off with a couple of articles about my collection and let's see what happens.

                                                                                                                      Alan Chandler.