Can’t get an appointment with your GP? Nowhere to sit in surgeries crammed with the ill and infirm? Spare a thought for your local auctioneer who is also dealing with the effects of a long winter of discontent. The cost-of-living plague, from which almost nobody is immune, has prompted people to rummage around in their cupboards for treasure and to wonder whether they really want to continue to insure that Raeburn or Lawrence at vast expense. Throw in the epidemic of rocketing gold and silver prices, and you’ll struggle to get an appointment with an auctioneer, busy as he is weighing Georgian candlesticks and making house visits to inspect the family portraits. 

Often unfairly referred to as ‘ambulance chasers’ who haunt the obituaries section of the Telegraph, auctioneers deal in death and misfortune almost as much as lawyers. Yes, the ‘three Ds (death, debt and divorce)’ keep us busy, but an auction house is not always Bleak House. As any fan of Cash in the Attic will tell you, the unpredictable nature of auctions is what makes them thrilling spectacles. 

When I first joined a major auction house in London 20 years ago, I went to watch a Chinese Works of Art sale. The item with top billing was an Imperial Qianlong vase and as the lot came up, one of the more........

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