Citylife in Lichfield October 2021

A Warco milling machine, which
went under the hammer for £520.
These three vintage steel planes, including an 8''
dovetailed mitre plane with ebony wedge and a G
Tissington 7'' chariot plane, made £750 as part of the
auction of a specialist tool collection.
A Harrison industrial lathe used to manufacture
exquisite model trains and trucks by a local engineer in
his workshop sold for £2,700 at auction.
From the
makers of…
...............................
By Stuart Hay
ALL beautiful things are made with materials, imagination and tools.
Not just things of beauty but practical and necessary items as well.
Carpenters, engineers and lowly DIYers like you are me, need tools
to make life easier. From the humble hammer, a meagre screwdriver
or heavy-duty metal working lathes and milling machine are needed
to carry out the simplest of household jobs to repairing and
manufacturing your family car they are all needed, along with a little
skill.
Then there is the beauty of the tool itself. Over the years
carpenters and engineers, as part of their apprenticeships, made and
adapted hand tools to suit the jobs at hand. Richard Winterton
Auctioneers has sold some stunning tools and toolboxes over the
years, including one gentleman’s collection of axes, planes, saws and
chisels from the iron age to the 1950s collected over 40 years and
displayed in rooms in his house in Tamworth and Cornwall. This
collection from the sublime plough and moulding planes
manufactured by Gabriel and Aux Mines De Suede in France, to the
ridiculous six inch hand chisel more than two-and-a-half feet in length
along with shipwright and coopering planes, axes and hammers made
in jolly old England by makers such as Hield, Cox and Luckman,
Mathieson, all sold through The Lichfield Auction Centre and realised
in excess of £30,000.
On the other end of the scale we held an onsite sale, just a mile
from our Fradley saleroom, of a deceased engineer who
manufactured exquisite model trains and trucks in his converted
garage/workshop. The machinery included a computer controlled
Warco milling machine, full size and miniature Axminster lathes, pillar
drill, hand power tools, turning blanks and sheet metal, along with lots
and lots of accessories for the machinery. These, along with some his
amazing models, totalled £15,000 for his long-time partner.
Our House Clearance team came across an attic full of
watchmaking and repairing equipment in one of our ‘normal’
clearances. This included watchmakers’ lathes only a foot in length,
This Axminster model engineer’s microlathe sold for £500.
with mandrill, chucks, miniature drill bits and cutters, pin presses,
Rolex and Omega back removal tools along with spare parts, watch
glasses, pins, etcetera – another collection amounting to thousands of
pounds.
It isn’t just large and extension collections that are sold at our
salerooms. As you can imagine, every household contains tools of
various grades and expenditure. From the DIY enthusiast with a
couple of hammers, saws and a power drill to more elaborate and
skilled home workshops with wood or metalworking lathes and
welding plants of all styles and sizes, such as a Parweld TIG welding
plant in almost new condition with all the kit needed for its use. This
realised more than £700 for a Coalville lady who had recently lost her
husband. Another example is the elderly gent with failing eyesight
wanting someone to utilise his Clarke metalworking lathe now that
he couldn’t safely use it anymore – his cheque totalled £400 to help
fund his next holiday for him and his wife.
Our household sales will always contain hand and power tools from
different makers like Record, Rabone and Chesterman, DeWalt, Ryobi,
Bosch, Milwaukee and many more. We try to cater for all wants and
needs for purchaser or vendor where possible. Whether it is one item
that you want to consign to auction or a larger collection for our
team to collect, all it takes is a call or email to start the process –
telephone 01543 251081 or email office@richardwinterton.co.uk.
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