Express & Star

Hamstead mining disaster remembered on classic postcards up for auction

Collectors of classic cigarette cards and postcards are in for a treat at an auctioneer’s sale.

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Kelly Mayall from Vintage Mummy with a 1908 postcard featuring the Great Barr Colliery Disaster

Wyre Forest Auctions, in Wolverley, is making the final preparations for the sale of a huge collection of cigarette cards and postcards.

The auction on March 22 will see about 30,000 items go under the hammer.

They came to auction house from a local man’s personal collection.

Auction house manager Craig Leonard spoke about the range of items available in the collection.

He said: “We ended up with this collection and did a check to see what was in it.

“We found that in addition to all the cigarette and postcards in the collection, there were more than 80 stamp albums and a number of coin collections.

“Having gone through it all, we decided to do a specialist stand-alone sale.”

The auctioneers have held specialist sales in the past for military items and Dinky toys and Craig is expecting a wide range of people to attend the sale.

He said: “We get up to 140 people for sales like this, with a lot of local collectors and people from outside the area coming over for the auction.

“There has been a lot of interest in things like the postcards, particularly in the West Midlands, as well as further out to Bristol, Gloucester and Worcester,” he added.

Mr Leonard also said that the team at Vintage Mummy were still going through and cataloguing all the items in the collection, with help from other auction firms.

The collection features silk postcards from World War One and a rare postcard of the Great Barr pit mining disaster of 1908. Mr Leonard spoke about his excitement at handling this collection ahead of the auction.

He said: “I can’t put into words how excited I am to have this collection and we want people to get as excited about this as we are. It’s not unusual for us to get items like these, but we know that collectors will be coming from all over as we’ve got a great collection.”

The viewing takes place at Wolverley Memorial Hall, at 9.30am.

The auction also takes place at the same hall and on the same day, in Shatterford Lane, at 2pm.

For further details about the auction and collection, call Craig Leonard on 07928 874623.