A different kind of adult toyshop

[arkessian]

I have the catalogue for this sale, which contains some awful English! I suspect the collector wrote many of the entries as the standard of Bonhams catalogues is usually better than this. He refers to the first LED calculators as becoming more valuable and "sort after", for example.

However, if you can see past the English mistakes, the catalogue contents are fascinating. I was particularly taken by the wire-guided anti-tank missile (which has been test fired) immediately adjacent to the Sinclair C5 (that quintessentially British technology that somehow failed to take the world by storm). On the next page is a "cast iron pull-along grasshopper" circa 1925  next to a "Bjorn Borg" advertising display tennis racquet circa 1975. There's a full size photographic of the Bayeux tapestry made in 1874, and a selection of telegraph cable sections recovered from the sea bed between Cuba and Jamaica in 1893 after 23 years of use. There's a 19th century Chinese acupuncturist's figurine next to an 1870 medical shock machine. And that's just scratching the surface. The catalogue runs to 119 pages and 758 lots, including some which the collector admits are "lucky dip" lots -- if you buy one and don't understand what you've got, you can email him and he "will try to explain to you what you have bought and what it might be important!"

No wonder the collector thanks his wife for giving him "the freedom to run a business I have described as an adult toyshop."

Comments

[ellarien]

That's a fascinating collection.

The clocks bring back memories; my father helped out a friend with an antique clock business for a while, and I remember some weekends when we had several mantel clocks lined up on the bookcase, striking slightly out of sync. We never got an inclined plane one, but I've seen them in museums. I may be one of the few people who regrets that the Sheffield museum's display of antique clocks was swept away in the modernization.

And a BBC micro! Those were the computer of choice around the Physics department labs when I was a student. My PhD research depended heavily on a Master Series model, which not only controlled the experiment but also acted as a terminal through which I could log in to the Rutherford Lab Vaxes and a word processor on which I wrote up my thesis.

[arkessian]

My lodger collects antique English clocks, which is how the printed catalogue came into my hands. I've lost count of how many clocks there are around the place; only one of them strikes the hours and I miss it when it stops because we've both forgotten to wind it. I always look out for clocks whenever I visit an old house or museum...

I remember BBC Micros with affection as well, although the computing when I did my Physics degree was done on a mainframe using punched cards — heaven help you if you dropped the tray while you were carrying it across a windy road to queue up to input your programme! Later on, when I was working in IT in the Central Electricity Generating Board, VAXes were our general purpose workhorses. And there was great excitement when the typing pool got a word processor (am IBM system 36, if I remember correctly). Although "typing pool" was a grand term for Linda and Daphne, who were the only ones actually allowed to use it.