Boldon Auction Galleries - Tel: +44(0)191 537 2630
Sunderland Echo Article, 29th March 2010
Every penny counts these days, so cash-savvy types are turning to the auction room to bag a bargain.
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Every penny counts these days, so cash-savvy types are turning to the auction room to bag a bargain.
From the mundane to the magnificent, the four walls of Boldon Auction Galleries have seen it all.
Pots and pans, beautiful antique tables, valuable jewellery and lifesize models of Jar Jar Binks – everything and anything can be found there.
The Galleries are owned and run by husband and wife team Giles and Caroline Hodges, blue bloods of the auction room.
Giles' father Malcolm was an auctioneer and the couple met while studying the business at college in Southampton.
They took on Boldon more than a decade ago and before that Giles worked for an auctioneer in Surrey, while Caroline specialised in Persian carpets before working for famous auction house Sotheby's, in London.
Caroline, 37, always knew she would work in an auction house.
"When I was six or seven we went on holiday to Scotland and my parents took me to a small antique shop," she says.
"I started collecting button hooks and hat pins and saved up my pocket money to buy them.
"I loved the history and thinking about where they came from. I knew then I wanted to do this job."
In the past year, business has been brisk.
Giles, 41, says secondhand goods have overcome the traditional stigma – they're having a rennaissance.
"The past 12 months have been phenomenal," he says. "More and more people want to buy and sell.
"If you go to a shop a three-piece suite is going to set you back a couple of thousand pounds – any auction house will sell you a three-piece suite for between £200 and £300.
"Auction rooms are very 'green' too. When something is 100 years plus it doesn't have a carbon footprint."
Both love the atmosphere of auction day.
Caroline said: "There's nothing quite like an auction because of the atmosphere and the interesting clients and things for sale. It's a real mixture."
And Giles agrees: "I'd recommend anyone to visit an auction sale, even if they don't buy anything, it's just really good fun. Nothing beats a sale for exhilaration."
Behind the scenes, a big part of the job is clearing houses, and Giles and Caroline often work with social services and the police – in their career they have cleared more than 5,000 homes over 20 years.
Giles said: "This is the grass roots of the auctioneer business. I've always wanted to be a general practitioner.
"There's something fascinating about going into a person's house – you never know what's behind closed doors.
"It could be £2 pots and pans or expensive jet skis."
The work is often delicate.
"It depends what we walk into," says Caroline. "At a time of bereavement you're dealing with people's emotions and some cope better than others.
"Normally when they're at the point of clearing a house they've dealt with those emotions. Stepping into someone's life is a big responsibility.
"Having said that, we've met some fascinating people and some real characters and found some amazing things."
And over the years there have been some real finds.
Giles said: "We knew a guy who used to trawl the car boot sales and he pulled up one day to show us his latest finds.
"He had a lovely George I stool and he was wondering whether to get it reupholstered.
"We auctioned it for £12,500 which at that time was the highest figure I'd achieved."
Caroline said the best lot is the most interesting, not the most expensive.
"We like it when items of local interest and history come up," she says.
"If they are bought by local people you feel as if you played a part in preserving a bit of social history.
"We've had some bizarre stuff over the years, like a 7ft Jar Jar Binks character, and some really interesting finds, like a miner's banner found in someone's garage."
Pots and pans, beautiful antique tables, valuable jewellery and lifesize models of Jar Jar Binks – everything and anything can be found there.
The Galleries are owned and run by husband and wife team Giles and Caroline Hodges, blue bloods of the auction room.
Giles' father Malcolm was an auctioneer and the couple met while studying the business at college in Southampton.
They took on Boldon more than a decade ago and before that Giles worked for an auctioneer in Surrey, while Caroline specialised in Persian carpets before working for famous auction house Sotheby's, in London.
Caroline, 37, always knew she would work in an auction house.
"When I was six or seven we went on holiday to Scotland and my parents took me to a small antique shop," she says.
"I started collecting button hooks and hat pins and saved up my pocket money to buy them.
"I loved the history and thinking about where they came from. I knew then I wanted to do this job."
In the past year, business has been brisk.
Giles, 41, says secondhand goods have overcome the traditional stigma – they're having a rennaissance.
"The past 12 months have been phenomenal," he says. "More and more people want to buy and sell.
"If you go to a shop a three-piece suite is going to set you back a couple of thousand pounds – any auction house will sell you a three-piece suite for between £200 and £300.
"Auction rooms are very 'green' too. When something is 100 years plus it doesn't have a carbon footprint."
Both love the atmosphere of auction day.
Caroline said: "There's nothing quite like an auction because of the atmosphere and the interesting clients and things for sale. It's a real mixture."
And Giles agrees: "I'd recommend anyone to visit an auction sale, even if they don't buy anything, it's just really good fun. Nothing beats a sale for exhilaration."
Behind the scenes, a big part of the job is clearing houses, and Giles and Caroline often work with social services and the police – in their career they have cleared more than 5,000 homes over 20 years.
Giles said: "This is the grass roots of the auctioneer business. I've always wanted to be a general practitioner.
"There's something fascinating about going into a person's house – you never know what's behind closed doors.
"It could be £2 pots and pans or expensive jet skis."
The work is often delicate.
"It depends what we walk into," says Caroline. "At a time of bereavement you're dealing with people's emotions and some cope better than others.
"Normally when they're at the point of clearing a house they've dealt with those emotions. Stepping into someone's life is a big responsibility.
"Having said that, we've met some fascinating people and some real characters and found some amazing things."
And over the years there have been some real finds.
Giles said: "We knew a guy who used to trawl the car boot sales and he pulled up one day to show us his latest finds.
"He had a lovely George I stool and he was wondering whether to get it reupholstered.
"We auctioned it for £12,500 which at that time was the highest figure I'd achieved."
Caroline said the best lot is the most interesting, not the most expensive.
"We like it when items of local interest and history come up," she says.
"If they are bought by local people you feel as if you played a part in preserving a bit of social history.
"We've had some bizarre stuff over the years, like a 7ft Jar Jar Binks character, and some really interesting finds, like a miner's banner found in someone's garage."
Next Sale
08/09/2010
General Sales
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Giles Hodges from Boldon Auction Galleries was interviewed on Friday 20th August on BBC Radio Newcastle in a feature discussing the current Auction Market.To listen again follow the link:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p009d1k0/Alfie_and_Charlie_at_Breakfast_20_08_2010/
and click on the time 2.18.50.
