Buyers go potty over warehouse treasures
Flamboyant furniture and unusual trinkets from around the world locked away in a Black Country warehouse for years have gone under under the hammer.
More than 1,000 lots were up for grabs at LP Furniture in Walsall, ranging from glamorous French dressing tables and beds fit for five star hotels to a Margaret Thatcher teapot from the 1980s. The collection, worth in the region of £400,000, has been hoarded away by directors of LP Furniture, Pierre and Lorraine Farouz, at The Old Brewery in Short Acre Street over the last 28 years.
But with internet bidding taking over the couple no longer need the space and staged a two-day clearance at the weekend. The sale attracted buyers from around the world. A musical mug expected to fetch no more than a few hundred pounds sparked a bidding war with a buyer from Australia landing his prize for £770 over the phone.
Mr Farouz said: "I know our things have gone to people like Michael Jackson, Barbara Streisand and footballers wives but I don't know those people personally as they just have their interior designers who send their people out to buy these things."
But the sale also attracted residents from the Black Country. Edyta Atamah, aged 24, and Darren Tulley, 44, of Hoo Road, Kidderminster, had their hopes set on a zebra patterned chest of drawers but missed out.
Meanwhile staff member Bobby Isaac, of Bewdley, was impressed by the Margaret Thatcher teapot estimated at £250 and reserved by a London collector. He said: "It is unusual, it looks like it is based on the Spitting Image character."
