I’m now finding that some online cataloguing of items has become lazy and maybe doesn’t have the same attention at one particular auction house.
I collect, among other things, items from the Boer War and want to have a full set of the campaign clasps which appear on the Queen’s South Africa medal.
I noticed a photograph of one in an advertisement in ATG, downloaded the catalogue and then went in to search. This is when my problems started – no listing under South Africa, no listing under Boer War and nothing under Queen’s South Africa medal. How they were listed was ‘Victorian Medal’.
Once I found them I wanted to know which battle clasps were on each medal.
Nothing in the description. I then magnified the photograph and the quality was so poor I couldn’t read them.
I, of course, emailed the auction house explaining my problem a week ahead of the auction. No reply, no bid, forgetting of course that in this digital age it’s rare to get a reply to emails.
I wonder if the person selling their collection queried the 20% plus commission they were getting for this ‘service’.
Mike Walsh
