b'Recollections by Stephen ClarkeThe auction room staff always encouraged me to helpIt did not matter to Gordon if a client of the firm had a when on school holidays. At one particular auctionmodest trinket to sell, or a fine and valuable collection, My first memories of the Clarke Gammonwhen I was about 16 or 17, I was on the rostrum with myhis encyclopaedic knowledge was available to all and Auction Rooms were of dusty, chaotic andfather clerking the sale. Towards the end, with about tenclients were treated with equal patience and professional somewhat Dickensian warehouse type rooms inlots to go, he handed me his gavel and said, Here youcourtesy that is rarely found in the frenetic world today.Walnut Tree Close, Guildford. go, take the rest of the sale please. My first performance One of the great joys of the life of an auctioneer is being As a boy in the 1960s, I was allowed to explore anas an Auctioneer was in large part a disaster, as I able to explore a unique collection and one of these old-fashioned, yet fascinating Aladdins cave of objects,kept forgetting to ask any of the buyers their names! occurred in 1996. My father was called by a solicitor ranging from the mundane to the extraordinary- Regardless, I muddled through and knew then that the friend in Epsom who was dealing with an estate of an washing machines next to Old Master paintings! Theexciting and varied world of auctioneering would play a old client in Cheam. We were instructed to visit the characters running the auction room in those dayssignificant part of my future working life. house to make an inventory, but it was suggested we were the Manager, Doc Chandler, who had incrediblewear overalls as the house had not been looked after well knowledge, Fred Holt the porter, tea maker, generalHere you go, take the rest and in a state of disrepair. To some, this may sound off-assistant and naughty joke teller, and the marvellousputting but to an auctioneer, it is the stuff of dreams!Rita Reed who would clerk the sales. A kind and jovialof the sale pleaselady who could balance the books in her head quickerMy father and I drove to the house, the property of the than anyone tapping away on a calculator. late Humphrey Taylor, whose family had established From 1989 to 2009, (when the auction department the Chelsea distillery for liqueurs, cordials and strong The auctioneer was my father Brian Clarke, and rathermerged with Ewbanks), Gordon Patrick was the auction waters in the late 18th century. On entering, it became like my grandfather, was first and foremost a Charteredroom Manager, and a more competent and hardworking obvious we had stumbled into a time warp and that little Surveyor. However, he loved auctions and continued employee it would be difficult to imagine. It was quite had changed inside for almost 100 years. As we explored, to build up the Fine Art department over the years andnormal to find Gordon still at the office until very late we came across an extraordinary collection of hunting this became a significant and highly respected part of most evenings compiling valuations, discussing reserves paintings, glass, silver, works-of-art and books, mostly the firm. with vendors, researching a group of obscure coins,filthy dirty but apart from that, in fine and original or proofreading the next auction catalogue, together As with a small number of other provincial Charteredcondition. Following our valuation, the executors with his extremely patient and capable secretary,Surveyors, it was a natural marriage to combine theValerie Hodgson.selling of both property and chattels'