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I always feel so uncharitable when I find something special in a charity shop. The best find yet was from oxfam in Winchester - Arabian Nights, numbered and si
by madaxe_again 3y ago
I always feel so uncharitable when I find something special in a charity shop.
The best find yet was from oxfam in Winchester - Arabian Nights, numbered and signed by Dulac, 1914 edition - £2, as the spine was (had it restored) damaged.
Oh, and a rather nice Moxon Idylls of the King, same shop a few months later, which I think was £25.
Both are worth a fair bit, but I’ve no intention of parting with them.
Non-literary works… a tiny watercolour by Nolde, gallery stamped and all, for £5. That, I sold at auction as I’m not much of a fan of his, and it paid for the renovation of a cottage.
I think these days they’ve largely wised up, but I still can’t resist a delve whenever I go by a charity shop.
- DoughnutHole 3y agoThose all seem like shockingly rare finds - do you spend a great deal of time investigating different charity shops? Most I find are full of utterly mundane second hand mass-market paperbacks.
- madaxe_again 3y agoI stick my head in pretty much any charity shop I pass to get a feel for the place, and there’s a huge variability in what you’ll find. Winchester’s second oxfam was a goldmine, as was their municipal dump - got a lovely set of late 18th c. Anglo-Indian rosewood dining chairs for a nominal sum at the latter, which took me all of an afternoon to bring back to life. Broadstairs in Kent I also had some great finds. It’s to do with the local populace - elderly, wealthy, and often lacking inheritors - and then they staff in the shops being just parochial enough to have no idea what they have. Big cities, forget about it, you’re more likely to win the lottery.