Island Life Magazine Ltd October/November 2008 | Page 31

INTERVIEW

a ten thousand pounds treasure,
I spend the same time with them.
I explain to them why their piece
is good and why it’s not good.
At least the person who only had
something worth a pound – which
therefore wasn’t worthy of being
putting into a sale – will hopefully
recommend me to others. I’m old
school: when I give my word to
a client that I will offer them my
experience to the full, I do. Many
excellent business relationships
have been built over the years with
this as the basis.”
Tim joined the firm, then known
as “Way Riddett & Co”, as an
assistant cashier, but found he
became more and more involved
in the history of the items for sale.
He caught the bug, the thrill of
the chase, the investigation and
the findings. Eventually, he found
himself on the rostrum at his first
auction. “I felt completely at home.
When I finished, my boss came up

to me and said ‘A new auctioneer
has been born today’!”
Meeting Tim you might think
it would have been a difficult
birth. A slim, quietly spoken man
with glasses, he doesn’t strike you
as an entertainer. As he speaks
about his job his open passion
for every aspect of it is almost
surprising from one seemingly so
self-contained. But on the rostrum
he is another man altogether,
deftly fending off wisecracks and
ad-libbing a response, rattling off
the rising bids while apparently
seeing a movement from the back
of his head. It all makes for a lot of
fun in the sale room.
“I don’t like auctioneers sitting
there just counting. You have to
be fluent, flowing, make a joke in
between. You might see someone in
the corner of your eye right in the
middle of the bidding, and you say
‘be with you in a minute!’ They’re
laughing their heads off, thinking

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how did he know, I haven’t even
moved?’ “
That old cliché about scratching
your head in the sale room and
hearing the words “Sold to that
lady!” is dangerously close to
reality, but Tim says while he
might jokingly take a bid from
someone fanning themselves with
the catalogue a bit of occasional
teasing all helps undo the idea that
an auctioneer is stuffy, and the sale
room is alien.
It is, however, occasionally
magical. Never knowing what the
day will bring causes Tim to be
effervescently excited about work
each day. He describes one of his
first sales, during the 1970s, which
included the contents from a Ryde
residence which realised over
£50,000 a value greater than the
house itself! He also remembers
being called to a house by a youth
who had been left the contents: “I’d
been searching through the house

life

and unfortunately found nothing.
Finally he said there was a bit of
junk in the last bedroom. There
I discovered various gold items,
and an interesting sword. I did my
investigation and found there were
only 55 like it known in the world.
It raised £16,000 for the young
man.”
It is also a world that is baffling.
Once, Tim discovered a Royal
Doulton figure which was only one
of two known to exist. It was sold
by telephone bidding to a mainland
buyer – who despite paying £4,000
for it, asked Tim just to send it by
just ordinary post. He concluded
that she must be the owner of the
other figure, and if only one existed
and this got destroyed, the value of
hers would soar . . . .
What seems remarkable is that
in all those years Tim has never
been caught out by a piece. His
terrier-like approach to research has
always paid off, and he has become

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