NOVEL NEXT Chapter 36 Harvest
"It seems that this thing should be sold as soon as possible after returning to London." After listening to Liang En's explanation for a few minutes, Pierce had to change his previous thoughts.
The reason why the box is judged to be a coffin is also very simple, because the flower reliefs used for decoration on the box are all chrysanthemums or white lilies. In addition, it is dotted with some cute looking little angels.
"This thing can be considered an antique." Liang En said while looking at the 1873 carved in a corner inside the box, "It's just not easy to get rid of it."
Historically, ceremonial coffins were popular among ordinary people in the Victorian era, who may not have much money but wanted a decent burial.
Therefore, some businessmen have prepared such things accordingly. The family members of the deceased can rent these things from them to make the funeral more dignified, and then replace them with cheaper coffins when they are buried.
Judging from the size, the one Pierce found now should have been used for children who died in infancy. Considering the mortality rate of children in that era, the production of such things would not be too many, but it would definitely be a lot.
"It's really not easy to get rid of." After listening to Liang En's words, Pierce also sighed. "But there are people in the collecting world who collect everything, so I was able to find someone willing to buy it."
Pierce is right about this. At least in the UK, there are perverted collectors who collect ancient Egyptian wooden coffins and even mummies. A ceremonial coffin is just a sprinkle of water.
However, this gadget is just an addition. Pierce's goal of acquiring Victorian furniture has basically exceeded the lower limit he had set for himself before coming here.
After a morning of sorting, the Victorian furniture he found in this room included a cupboard, a square table and four matching chairs, a coffee table, a display cabinet, an oil painting painted by a commercial painter at the time and a Dressing table.
The other furniture, although it looks like it's from the Victorian era, is actually just some modern imitations. It's just that the two people couldn't see this when they looked in through the gap in the wooden boards outside the window.
"By the way, what did you find upstairs just now?" After talking about all his gains this morning, Pierce asked about Liang En's gains just now.
"Most of the attic is filled with old clothes. After all, they have to consider the strength of the ceiling of their house." Liang En said, taking out the bag containing the loot. "But I still found a lot of valuable stuff."
Then, he began to take out the things he had just found one by one.
After seeing the sets of "Harry Potter" books and peripheral books, Pierce's face was very calm. But when Liang En took out the teddy bear, Pierce suddenly became excited.
"This is a teddy bear produced by Steiff Company in Germany, and it is also a limited edition with the highest average price among them."
"How do you know?" Liang En picked up the teddy bear and looked at it, looking confused, because he only recognized that this thing should be from the 1970s, and it might be of some value, but he couldn't tell the specific situation at all.
"This is because my ex-girlfriend liked this thing very much, so I did some homework at that time." Pierce said, pointing to the label on the left ear of the teddy bear in front of him that was nailed with Dukin nails. "From here You can tell them apart.”
"There are three types of teddy bears produced by Steiff, which can be distinguished by this label. Among them, the ones with yellow background and red characters are ordinary products, and the ones with black characters on white background are important replicas. And like the white one we got now The ones with red letters on the bottom are the most valuable limited editions."
"But unfortunately, this one is a relatively common limited edition. It is incomparable to the $2.1 million limited edition they produced with LV before."
"How much is this thing worth?" Liang En was not very interested in this kind of stuffed toy, so he was more concerned about how much it could be sold for.
"Let me check - yes, this is it." Pierce took out his phone and rummaged for a few minutes, and soon found an almost identical teddy bear from an auction house's website.
Liang En went over and found that the transaction price of the teddy bear was 2,700 pounds. However, compared with the teddy bear in his hand, the teddy bear at the auction seemed a little older.
"So the price of the teddy bear we have should be between 2,500 pounds and 3,500 pounds." After comparing them with each other, Liang En came to a fair conclusion.
"Yes, this is an extra bonus." Pierce also smiled, "I didn't expect that there would be so many things in the attic where the sundries are kept."
"And that's not all." As he spoke, Liang En took out the "Harry Potter" from the deepest part of his bag. "This is the most valuable thing I found this time, the first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone."
"The version that only printed 500 copies?" Although Pierce had a general feeling about this novel, as Britain's national literature, he naturally did some research on these things.
"That's right, it's that edition. I remember that a copy was sold at an auction before for nearly 30,000 pounds. But our copy is better preserved, so it's estimated to be worth another two to three thousand pounds."
"It's more than that." Pierce put on his gloves and flipped through the book carefully before saying. "Don't forget, this book is signed by the author, so it has more important commemorative value."
After checking the book, Pierce immediately returned to the car and took out a special plastic bag to put the book in. Then he put it in the small safe in his car that was used to store such expensive items.
The work in the afternoon was similar to that during the day, mainly cleaning the entire room. For this purpose, Liang En even moved the metal detector.
But unfortunately, most of the rooms here have been searched by the heirs of the old owner. So apart from two 1950s silver coins and a Victorian iron flower pot stand, they found nothing during the afternoon.
That night, the two of them did not stay in the hotel, but simply chose to spend the night wrapped in sleeping bags in the room.
The next morning, they got up early and went to a nearby McDonald's to do housekeeping and had breakfast. Then they transformed into movers and moved the furniture to the car.
Maybe the homeowner was worried that the antique furniture would be damaged during transportation, so all the large pieces of furniture were placed on the first floor. This is convenient for Liang En and Pierce, who are not very professional.
After wrapping the furniture with rags found upstairs, the official moving work began.
To be honest, if you hire professional movers, it might take less than an hour to move these things, but it took Liang En and Pierce, two novices, a full morning to move all these things together. On the two cars that came.
Today Pierce was driving the store's medium-sized truck, similar to the kind used by moving companies, with a door on the side that pulled down and could be used as a ramp. Therefore, the workload of two people is reduced a lot.