A bargain! Children in Need goodies at auction at Farleigh

Bargain Hunt, the BBC’s daytime antiques and art works programme, is in Croydon today to film a celebrity episode for this year’s Children in Need appeal.

Auctioneer Catherine Southon with some of the cartoon lots up for sale at Farleigh Court today

Catherine Southon, the organiser of the auction being held at Farleigh Court Golf Club today, has arranged a special lot for two football fans to see Crystal Palace play Manchester United next March – with the prized package up for bidding including full hospitality, a tour of the dressing room and behind the scenes at the stadium, plus signed Crystal Palace and Manchester United shirts.

Southon is celebrating the fifth anniversary of her Bromley-based auction house at today’s event, with a range of lots, including original cartoons by Smilby, who regularly worked for Punch, Playboy and other magazines. His works carry estimates between £100 and £1,000.

The Bargain Hunt celebrities at the auction today are BBC Radio 1 DJ Colin Murray and Sony Award-winner Nihal, who will be pitted against Edith Bowman and Amplify Dot.

The auction is open to the public, and will also accept internet bids.

Bidders will get a chance to bid for all the lots the celebrity teams have bought, which include a gramophone, an art deco tea set and some jewellery.

As it is a charity Bargain Hunt, there will also be a fantastic opportunity for everyone to bid for some unique experiences and special objects collected by the Bargain Hunt experts – all to go towards this year’s Children in Need fundraising activities.

As well as the Crystal Palace match experience, you can bid for special tours with the experts – Phillip Serrell will go on a tour of the Royal Museum of Worcester, or you can shop until you drop with Caroline Hawley around a Yorkshire antiques fair. Tim Weeks will treat the successful bidder to an… Arsenal home match.

Some of the presenters are also parting with personal art or jewellery – a great opportunity to acquire one of Anita Manning’s striking necklaces, a landscape painting by Scottish artist Philip Raskin, an original art work by David Harper and a Bargain Hunt-themed glass blown plate by Charlotte Hughes-Martin.

Catherine Southon has worked for 21 years in the antiques business, initially at Sotheby’s New Bond Street for nine years as an auctioneer specialising in scientific instruments and maritime works of art, and she has appeared as an expert on several BBC programmes.

She started her own auction house at the Ripley Arts Centre in Bromley in 2012.

Today’s sale event at the golf club, on Old Farleigh Road, Selsdon, CR6 9PE, starts at 9.30am and continues through to 8pm.


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News, views and analysis about the people of Croydon, their lives and political times in the diverse and most-populated borough in London. Based in Croydon and edited by Steven Downes. To contact us, please email inside.croydon@btinternet.com
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