Antiques and Collectables Show

Antiques and Collectables Show comes to Pambula!

Just like the BBC version of the Antiques Roadshow, people crowded into the Masonic Hall at Pambula with their artworks, jewellery, furniture and ceramics in the hope that their treasures could be found to be of enormous value! Secretly I was hoping that jewellery valuer, Melanie Sykes, might just possibly discover a rare, valuable and highly desirable object, such as a Fabergé egg.

Those who had to queue for hours were comforted with a plate of delicious nibbles created by Geraldine McCann, Liz Bretherton and Val Russell, and a glass of      wine, served by ring-ins, Rob and Sam Bretherton.

Society Treasurer, Brigitte Kestermann, ticked names off as people arrived and sold raffle tickets for the many great prizes that had been donated by our generous local businesses.

I was hovering, notebook and camera poised, ready to capture the moment when the “discovery’ would be made. Over in the art section, artist, Peter Dunne, was expressing interest in a water colour landscape claiming it was “the best painting he’d seen today”. Our ceramic expert, Phil Pulling, discovered a piece of Moorcroft pottery. In the centre of the crowd I noticed a sudden flurry of excitement. Unbelievably a customer had not only produced a ceramic Fabergé egg, but also four tiny enamelled eggs.

Oh joy! I rushed over to interview Vicky Charlton, who owned the eggs. Vicky also had provenance in the form of a book about the Tsars, with a photo of her great aunt, Lilian Eadie, Norland nurse to Rudolph Hesse’s two sons. Also in the photo is Alexei Nikolaevich, the heir to the Tsar and cousin of the Hesse boys. When war broke out in 1915, Lilian was sent home, having been given the eggs as a gift for her services. Vicky was lucky enough to inherit these rare and wonderful Fabergé eggs.

The afternoon was a huge success and raised a much needed $1200 for the Old School Museum.