Wednesday 29 May 2019

Drop in Valuation Sessions

Friday 7th June 10am- 12noon and 2pm-4pm

Saturday 8th June 10am -1pm

No appointment needed ~ Free ~  No obligation to sell 
More than 6 items ? we have lots of free appointments available

see www.boldonauctions.co.uk
email info@boldonauctions.co.uk
telephone 0191 537 2630

From Guinness to Guitars



Do you have items for FREE valuation and possibly sale??

We are booking appointments for:
Monday 10th June
Tuesday 11th June
Wednesday 12th June
Thursday 13th June

Please call 0191 537 2630 or email info@boldonauctions.co.uk to make an appointment


Dickinson's Real Deal coming to town

Don't Forget !!!!

Wednesday 5th June 2019 will see ITVs Dickinson's Real Deal filming our Auction - Antique and Interiors Sale

So get here early - doors open from 9am



Antique and Interiors Sale 
Wednesday 5th June 2019

Our Auction Catalogue will be on-line from 5pm 
Friday 31st May

and View in person 
Saturday 1st June 10am-1pm
Tueday 4th June 2pm-6pm
and morning of the sale from 9am

Tales of a Hangman



We were recently contacted by a gentleman who had a very personal story about Albert Pierrepoint and he was happy for us to share it.  The gentleman's Grandfather was a Prison Warden at Winson Green Prison, Birmingham.


"Albert would come up to Birmingham by train, the night before a hanging. He would arrive at New Street Station and make his way to our prison quarters at Winson Green close to the City hospital where I was born. 


He was a small unassuming man who always wore a trilby hat. He would have dinner with my family, smoke a cigar and take me on his knee. He would tell me a bedtime story which always ended happily ever after.  I was 2 or 3 years old when I first met him in 1948. 


My grandfather's were both prison officers and one of them would take Mr Pierrepoint to meet the condemned man in his cell, the night before the execution.  Once inside the cell Pierrepoint would offer his hand to the prisoner.  The prisoner would stand, offer his hand and in that moment Pierrepoint would estimate his height and weight.  He would then go to the execution chamber and adjust his scaffold accordingly to ensure he had a clean kill. 

My grandfather meanwhile would remain in the condemned cell to ensure the prisoner didn’t attempt to cheat the gallows by committing suicide.

At the appointed hour (usually 8am) my grandfather and a priest would take the prisoner down.  He would be blindfolded, blessed and executed.  The prison clock would then ring out to confirm the execution.

According to my grandparents, he never referred to the condemned man in any way. He approached his job with great gravity but never discussed the circumstances leading to the hanging verdict. 

My grandfather retired from the prison service in 1952 and Albert retired in about 1956 I think. They intended to write their memoirs together but when they notified the Home Office of their intention they were forbidden from doing so. 


Although more than 200 of the murderers executed by Albert were war criminals, there were many others who still had living relatives and the Home Office deemed it inappropriate.  I understand that Albert did write his memoirs about twenty years later coincidentally in the same year my grandfather died. 

In about 1976 I was looking for a security officer in Southport.  Albert Pierrepoint applied.  Unfortunately he was by that time over 70 so although it was a great thrill to meet up with the great man who used to tell me stories when I was a very small boy, I couldn’t return the favour."

Thursday 23 May 2019


We are delighted to have been on BBC Look North Breakfast and Lunch time news and will be on this evenings News from 6:30pm tonight.

Please click this link to catch the lunchtime Boldon Auction Galleries News !


BBC Look North



A collection of items belonging to Albert Pierrepoint (30 March 1905 – 10 July 1992) Britain’s most famous hangman who executed approximately 600 people in a 25-year career that ended in 1956.  The collection includes his notebook which lists the executions carried out with details to determine how to achieve the quickest death and his father Henry’s notebook, the plaster cast of Albert Pierrepoint’s face and hands, photographs and documents, watch chain and cigar holder.

Henry Pierrepoint’s execution book (1 November 1901 – 14 July 1910), includes personal details of those hanged including the prisoner’s name, age, height, weight and drop, site of execution and remarks detailing the physical frame of the prisoners and calibre of their necks; “very heavy body, ordinary neck, wirey, very thin neck, little flabby”.  18cm x 11cm

Albert Pierrepoint’s leather-bound execution ledger, embossed with his name “A. Pierrepoint”, (29 December 1932 - 27 July 1955) includes personal details of those hanged with additional notes such as “the German, Dutch and Belgium spies, French Canadian, USA, IRA, British Soldier” etc.  15cm x 24cm

An amber and ivory cigar holder, with leather silver velvet lined case, 8cm long, belonged to Henry A. Pierrepoint.  (Albert’s father and British hangman).

A silver watch chain worn by Albert Pierrepoint, Henry Pierrepoint (his father) and Thomas Pierrepoint (his Uncle) at hundreds of executions between 1900 and 1956.  42cm long  
                                                                                                                                                                                                      
Documents and photographs including the “Memorandum of Conditions to which any person acting as Executioner is required to conform”, a letter of thanks from the War Office, written by Lieutenant-Colonel J.R.H. Robertson referring to the hanging of three men Hensmann, Smith and Golby in a secluded area of the Egyptian desert, photographs of the Pierrepoint men, Robert Fabian (Fabian of the Yard) and John Ellis (Hangman) and a Sunday Pictorial newspaper, May 13 1945 with an article about John Amery a pro-Nazi British fascist who Albert Pierrepoint went on to hang.                                                                                                                    

Thursday 16 May 2019

Lovely Day for a Guinness !


An item of Guinness breweriana to be sold in our General Sale on the 22nd May 2019.

Catalogue will be on-line on Friday 17th May at 5pm

“Too much of anything is bad, but too much good whisky is barely enough.”


  


A Limited Edition bottle of Macallan Whisky, released to celebrate the Marriage of HRH The Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer in 1981. The release was a marriage of single malt Whisky distilled in 1948 and 1961 the years of the Royal couples' births.
Estimate £1,000 - £1,500

To be sold in the Antique and Interiors Sale on 5th June 2019

The Macallan distillery is a single malt Scotch whisky distillery in Craigellachie, Moray.




Unique opportunity to buy a piece of social history: The notebook of the most famous British hangman Albert Pierrepoint comes up for auction




Boldon Auction Galleries have been consigned for Auction a collection of items belonging to Albert Pierrepoint (30 March 1905 – 10 July 1992) Britain’s most famous hangman who executed approximately 600 people in a 25-year career that ended in 1956.  

The collection includes his notebook which lists the executions carried out with details to determine how to achieve the quickest death and his father Henry’s notebook, the plaster cast of Albert Pierrepoint’s face and hands, photographs and documents, watch chain and cigar holder.  


  • Henry Pierrepoint’s execution book (1 November 1901 – 14 July 1910), includes personal details of those hanged including the prisoner’s name, age, height, weight and drop, site of execution and remarks detailing the physical frame of the prisoners and calibre of their necks; “very heavy body, ordinary neck, wirey, very thin neck, little flabby”.  18cm x 11cm

  • Albert Pierrepoint’s leather-bound execution ledger, embossed with his name “A. Pierrepoint”, (29 December 1932 - 27 July 1955) includes personal details of those hanged with additional notes such as “the German, Dutch and Belgium spies, French Canadian, USA, IRA, British Soldier” etc.  15cm x 24cm

  • An amber and ivory cigar holder, with leather silver velvet lined case, 8cm long, belonged to Henry A. Pierrepoint.  (Albert’s father and British hangman).

  • A silver watch chain worn by Albert Pierrepoint, Henry Pierrepoint (his father) and Thomas Pierrepoint (his Uncle) at hundreds of executions between 1900 and 1956.  42cm long

  • Documents and photographs including the “Memorandum of Conditions to which any person acting as Executioner is required to conform”, a letter of thanks from the War Office, written by Lieutenant-Colonel J.R.H. Robertson referring to the hanging of three men Hensmann, Smith and Golby in a secluded area of the Egyptian desert, photographs of the Pierrepoint men, Robert Fabian (Fabian of the Yard) and John Ellis (Hangman) and a Sunday Pictorial newspaper, May 13 1945 with an article about John Amery a pro-Nazi British fascist who Albert Pierrepoint went on to hang.


To be offered for Auction at Boldon Auction Galleries Antique and Interiors Auction on 5th June 2019.  Estimate £25,000 - £30,000.


Albert Pierrepoint was a Yorkshireman influenced by his father and uncle, when asked at school to write about what job he would like when older, Pierrepoint said that "When I leave school I should like to be public executioner like my dad is, because it needs a steady man with good hands like my dad and my Uncle Tom and I shall be the same".
In December 1932 Albert Pierrepoint undertook his first execution as assistant to his Uncle. They travelled to Mountjoy Prison in Dublin for the hanging of Patrick McDermott, a farmer who had murdered his brother.  It was scheduled for 8:00am and took less than a minute to perform. Pierrepoint's job as assistant was to follow the prisoner onto the scaffold, bind the prisoner's legs together, then step back off the trapdoor before the lead executioner sprung the mechanism.









In October 1941 Pierrepoint carried out his first execution as lead executioner when he hanged the gangland killer Antonio "Babe" Mancini.  Arriving the day before the execution he was told the height and weight of the prisoner and viewed the condemned man through the "Judas hole" in the door to judge his build. Pierrepoint then went to the execution room to test the equipment using a sack that weighed about the same as the prisoner; calculated the length of the drop using the ‘Home Office Table of Drops’, making allowances for the man's physique, if necessary.  He left the weighted sack hanging on the rope to ensure the rope was stretched and it would be re-adjusted in the morning if necessary.
On the day of the execution, the practice was for Pierrepoint, his assistant and two prison officers to enter the condemned man's cell at 8:00am. Pierrepoint secured the man's arms behind his back with a leather strap, and all five walked through a second door, which led to the execution chamber. The prisoner was walked to a marked spot on the trapdoor whereupon Pierrepoint placed a white hood over the prisoner's head and a noose around his neck. The metal eye through which the rope was looped was placed under the left jawbone which, when the prisoner dropped, forced the head back and broke the spine. Pierrepoint pushed a lever, releasing the trapdoor. From entering the condemned man's cell to opening the trapdoor took him a maximum of 12 seconds.


After the Second World War he was appointed an honorary Lieutenant-Colonel executing 200 war criminals between 1945 and 1949 in Hameln, Germany and Graz, Austria, often ten people per day.  Among those executed were the camp commandant Josef Kramer (‘The Beast of Belsen’), Irma Grese (Hyena of Auschwitz) at 22 the youngest concentration camp guard to be executed for crimes at Bergen-Belsen and Auschwitz and Dr Bruno Tesch, co-inventor of the insecticide Zyklon B used in the Holocaust to kill over 6 million people. Executed for treason was William Joyce (Lord Haw-Haw) who had broadcast Nazi propaganda to Britain from Germany during the Second World War and John Amery a pro-Nazi British fascist.

Albert Pierrepoint executed high-profile murderers including Gordon Cummins (the Blackout Ripper), John Haigh (the Acid Bath Murderer) and Ruth Ellis – the last woman to be executed in Britain. 

He also undertook several contentious executions, including Timothy Evans who was wrongfully executed for a crime committed by his neighbour John Christie (the Rillington Place Strangler) who was also hanged by Albert Pierrepoint and Derek Bentley who was hanged for the murder of a policeman. The murder was said at the time to have been committed by a friend and accomplice of Bentley's and led to a 45-year-long campaign to win Derek Bentley a posthumous pardon, which was granted in 1993, and then a further campaign for the quashing of his murder conviction, which occurred in 1998.

Albert Pierrepoint resigned in 1956 and the Home Office acknowledged him as the most efficient executioner in British history and believed him to have hanged more criminals than anyone else in Britain.



Friday 3 May 2019

A diamond is forever


Lot 286.

An 18ct gold diamond solitaire ring, the brilliant cut diamond, colour I/J, clarity VS1/VS2, estimated weight 2.2 carat

Estimate £10,000-£15,000



Lot 287.

A
 pair of diamond earrings, each diamond approximately 1 carat 

Estimate £4,000 - £6,000 

To be offered at auction in our Antique and Interiors Sale Wednesday 8th May from 10am

Viewing - 
Saturday 4th May 10am - 1pm 
and Tuesday 7th May 2pm - 6pm

Wednesday 1 May 2019

Poles Apart





Artworks by Antoni Sulek.
To be offered at auction in our Antique and Interiors Sale Wednesday 8th May

Described as incredible, Antoni Sulek paintings are considered North East masterpieces.  Born in Morpeth in 1951, Sulek was the child of Polish parents, who had fled to England during the Second World War. Taking influence from his parents struggles in labour camps in Siberia; Sulek went on to paint his own life experiences into his artwork, depicting the effect his self-imposed exile from his family and his arrest and expulsion from Poland had on him.  

Sitting Pretty




A twin handled Sunderland Lustre 'Marriage Present' chamber pot

To be offered in our Antique and Interiors Sale Wednesday 8th May 
This extremely rare twin handled chamber pot dates to the early 1800’s.
The Sunderland Lustre pot has an amusing verso on the inside and out.

The inside sees a man sitting open mouthed and a relief figure of a frog.
The quote inside says "Keep me Clean and use me Well, And what I see I will not tell."

Bold is Beautiful




A fantastically coloured trio of Lorna Bailey sugar sifters

To be offered at auction in our 
Antique and Interiors Sale Wednesday 8th May

Rest and Relax

Image may contain: people sitting, table and indoor

Measuring in at 10ft, with an inside ring measuring 6ft, this incredible tree seat has us gasping at the taste of summer! 

An afternoon picnic, a day watching the wildlife? 

The options are limitless... How would you utilise the seat to pass the time on a hot summers day? 

The tree seat will be offered for auction in our Antique and Interiors Sale on Wednesday 8th May 

Sailing The High Seas



A 20th century German two day marine chronometer, Wempe, Hamburg, no. 203, retailed by Gebr. Eppner, Berlin in a mahogany case.

Estimate £400 - £600

To be offered for Auction Antiques and Interiors Sale 8th May 2019


Marine Chronometers are timepieces that are precise and accurate enough to be used as portable time standards determining longitude by means of accurately measuring the time of a known fixed location such as Greenwich Mean Time and the time at the current location.

Marine chronometers revolutionised sea voyages and exploration when first developed in the 18th century.  The term chronometer was taken from the Greek words chronos meaning time and meter meaning counter.

In 1878, Herbert Wempe, started out with a store in his aunt’s house, moving to Oldenburg 1894 to start his own watch and jewellery shop.

On January 1st, 1938, Wempe took over the running of Hamburger Chronometerwerke. Founded by the great German shipowners from Hamburg and Bremen in 1905, the Hamburg plant saw the start of Wempe’s shop chain. In 1942 Wempe went on to develop the patent for a unit chronometer, the chronometer is still produced in Hamburg.

“Founded in 1905, Wempe Chronometerwerke has always devoted itself to the exacting task of manufacturing precise maritime instruments and nautical timekeeping systems. Simultaneously cultivating traditional values and keeping its gaze directed toward the future, Wempe numbers among the world’s leading manufacturers” (taken from www.wempe.com