My grandfather went to auctions all the time – it's in the blood, and growing up I would often play the art auction board game, Masterpiece, with my family.
I became involved in antiques when I graduated from university – I did an Art History degree, then a Masters, thinking I'd like to work as a curator in an art gallery.
While studying, I arranged for the Antiques Roadshow expert Hilary Kay to come and talk to us about collectables. She focused on sleeing Jimi Hendrix's Fender Stratocaster guitar at Sotheby's, where she was head of collectables. That was it, I was hooked.
I applied for a job at Sotheby’s and started at the bottom. I worked there for 9 years and became a head of department. It gave me a great grounding for everything from dolls to globes, sundials and antique marine instruments and collectables.
We did the Geri Halliwell sale, the Spitting Image sale, the Robbie Williams sale, and ran auctions at Hard Rock Cafe – heady times.
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In 2003, while I was at Sotheby’s, I was approached by the BBC to do a screen test for a new programme called Flog It!. Some 20 years later, I’m still involved in antiques series, filming for around 30 days a year.
On the back of that, I set up my own auction house, Catherine Southon Auctioneers & Valuers, in 2012. Until that point I had been working as an antiques consultant and presenting programmes for the BBC.
Doing talks in the local area, I was often asked, ‘Where’s the nearest auction room?’. As there wasn’t anything nearby, I decided to set up on my own! It's now grown from being just me to a staff of six.
The auction house is my baby. I’m on it 24 hours a day, plus weekends, and I like to sell as much as I can on sale days, too. After all, it’s my name at the top.
We only deal with private property, so everything is fresh to the market and we’ve developed a specialism for jewellery, watches and silver.
I love dealing with the public, and valuation days are always great fun. People arrive clutching their bags, often with no idea of what’s inside.
One lady brought out a Fabergé photo frame from an M&S bag – it made £18,000 at auction. Another family brought a collection of stunning jewellery design drawings in an album spanning the 1930s to the 1960s, created by their father who designed for London jewellers; it was a historic item and made over £1,300.
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No two days are alike in the auction world. Our open valuation days in Kent and Surrey are always my favourite. You never know what’s going to grace your table and some of the best things I have ever seen have come out of shabby supermarket carrier bags!
There’s nothing better than lotting up a sale on a Monday evening. When the cabinets are gleaming and ready to view the next morning, I can finally breathe a sigh of relief.
My favourite items sold to date have been a beautiful diamond ring that went for £27,140, and a real Suffragette hunger strike medal that sold for £48,640 [both pictured below].
There was such a buzz in the room and I didn’t know when the bidding was going to stop. I’m not a collector, I buy things I like. At home I have everything from an 18th-century microscope to a nest of vintage Ercol tables.
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