David Lay reaches 20-year milestone (From Falmouth Packet)

David Lay reaches 20-year milestone

10:02am Saturday 11th November 2006

• Print
• Email
• Share

His name and face may not be so familiar as Hugh Scully or Michael Aspel, but David Lay has passed a 20-year milestone in providing the "Antiques Roadshow" experience for people dreaming of cashing in on hidden wealth.

Over the past two decades, the well-known auctioneer estimates some 9,000 people have attended his weekly valuation sessions at the Falmouth Hotel.

For these people, he calculates that he has valued around 100,000 items - with about a quarter of them progressing to auction and, at an average of £50 per lot, yielding a grand total of well over a million pounds in that time.

For most, the experience is disappointing, but just occasionally someone will strike it lucky.

One example was a Mickey Mouse toothbrush holder bought at a car boot sale for £2 - and sold for £780 at David's Penzance auction house!

Another was a Clarice Cliff tea service that was packaged and ready to go to a jumble sale - until the owner's son intervened and had it valued, resulting in an auction sale of £2,400.

Favourite items over the years have included the works of celebrated Falmouth artist Henry Scott Tuke - with one of David's biggest-ever sellers, an oil painting of Falmouth harbourside, going for £17,000. A Harold Harvey oil painting fetched £38,000.

"A lot of my time is spent breaking bad news - telling people that things are nowhere near as valuable as they had hoped," says David.

"But I can usually tell them a lot about their possessions anyway, which they enjoy. People often say to me that they wouldn't actually sell something even if it was valued at a million pounds - they just wanted to know more about it - but they normally say that after I have valued it at just £2!"

But he adds: "The fact remains that there is always that tantalizing possibility that something brought along will turn out to be worth a lot of money. People never know until they try and they certainly shouldn't fear embarrassment; I love meeting everyone and talking about their possessions."

Among his early acquaintances in this context were Falmouth couple Nicholas and Gina Voller. They didn't have a big seller, but Nicholas went on to become David's "best mate" and the photographer for all the items illustrated in his sale catalogues.

It has been known for nearly 40 people to crowd into the small conference room at the Falmouth Hotel that is occupied by David for an hour every Monday morning - and he has also known sessions where no-one has turned up. He moved to the hotel after starting his Falmouth valuations in the Church Street offices of estate agents James and Yeats, now occupied by Heather and Lay - where, co-incidentally, his brother John is a partner.

David, who now also has valuation sessions at Truro's Alverton Manor hotel every Monday afternoon, has been in the auctioneering business for 35 years - "and I still find it every bit as fascinating and thrilling now as I did when I left school."

He attributes his valuation expertise to his lifetime interest and involvement in the subject, which includes knowing where to look on the rare occasions that he's initially stumped.

"And I look forward to holding these valuations at the Falmouth Hotel for another 20 years," he says, "Just so long as people continue to come along on the off chance that they've got some hidden treasure!"

• Print
• Email
• Share