County Constabulary Can anyone help?

[timroutley]

I have recently seen this item for sale, and I am hoping to start a small collection of antique truncheons from the Police Forces of Great Britain. It is on sale for £300, what do you think, and can anyone tell me about it. I am very new to this, and am currently waiting for the book 'The Policemans Lot' by Mervyn Mitton to arrive, to hopefully help me out. But in the meantime I would appreciate any assistance that you can give.

Thanks in advance

Tim

[Robin Lumsden]

Nice George IV item.

Police, or bailiff ??

(The seller got this monarch's dates wrong on the advert!) ;)

[Brian Wolfe]

Hi Tim,

Welcome to the GMIC.

Very nice tipstaff, I've been following this one myself.

In keeping with my own policy of not knowingly bidding against another member I'm out.

In my opinion, if you can get this either for the opening bid or a bit hight it will be a good buy.

Please post the results and I hope your new tipstaff when you win the bid.

Regards

Brian

[Mervyn Mitton]

Tim - I wish you luck in acquiring this fine example - and I think it is generous for Brian not to bid. I'm not sure that

is necessary, as unfortunately other bidders won't stand down for you.

The dealer has a very poor idea of what he is selling - he should of read my book................

Firstly, the price. If it goes at 300 pounds, that is a good price for a named item. I would say go to a max. of 400 (?) if

that is within your budget.

The item at 27cm. (10") is a tipstaff - and is typical of Cornish Truncheons and Tipstaffs. Whilst there are exceptions

they tended to have a four sided top - often with four different panels. This one has the post 1816 Arms for George 4th

(1820-1830). Since the Parish of St.Colomb is named - then this was for the Parish Constable. He may well have had a

longer truncheon or, a Staff. Either of these would also have been decorated in the same way.

I see time is nearly up - let us know if you are succesful ? Mervyn

[timroutley]

Unfortunately I was outbid on the item, I guess I left it too late to find his/hers limit! The item went for £330 in the end.

I would like to say thank you to Brian for standing aside on the bidding, hopefully you will forgive me for not getting, as you may well have put in a very strong bid initially to acquire it. Just out of curiosity, how much would you all have gone up to to secure it?

Thanks for all your help, I guess I will have to wait a while longer before my collection starts. However I'm looking forward to doing some research into the area.

Kind Regards

Tim

[Brian Wolfe]

Hi Tim,

Sorry to hear that you didn't end up with the tipstaff but that's the nature of auctions.

As to how much would I have gone up to, that's a little hard to say in that it is somewhat of a confession to have to admit. I don't collect with "investment" in mind so if I am really interested in an item I tend to bid well above market in order to secure it. To be honest, in this case I would have posted a snipe in the last 5 seconds (my usual trick) at £500. As Mervyn has stated these are worth in the neighbourhood of £400. I'm at the point in my collecting where missing out on a specimen is not the end of the world so no problems in not obtaining this one. It was more important to give a fellow member a chance to add it to his collection than to add it to mine.

As an example, there was an India General Service Medal offered a few months ago with the Abor bar which I had never been able to obtain. These usually sell for around $300. when you can find them, which is not often. With 5 seconds to go in the auction I slapped down $800. to assue my success, needless to say it is now in my collection and it cost me just under the market value...go figure.

To para-phrase Sun T'su, never go to "war" unless you have enough resources to assure a victory.

Good luck on your future collecting.

Regards

Brian

[Ross Mather]

This tipstaff was purchased by a dealer and is going for double what he paid for it........Ross

[Mervyn Mitton]

Thanks Ross - in this condition, that isn't really at all expensive. Mervyn