News

If slippers & socks proved another Christmas stocking staple this year, Ian King, Shouler & Son County Auction Rooms Manager, wants to encourage more creative present giving in 2023.

‘Mantiques’ as a word and phenomenon has been gaining ground in the world of auction rooms and sales for the past decade.

While the term is a bit of a lazy handle in being so gender-specific, the items covered contributing to this phenomenon do tend to date back to a time when, in the main, childhood hobbies were defined in more rigid gender terms - certainly in their advertising & marketing - which now, of course, are outdated.

It’s a term that covers an eclectic range of lots that come through for sale - whether one-offs or comprehensive and curated collections.

These items can be as diverse.

Obvious ones are vinyl records, music magazines, sports sticker albums and sets of toy items such as the childhood classics of Scalextric, Meccano or Lego.

And it’s childhoods of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, in the main, as the age demographic of both buyers and sellers - setting aside the dealers who specialise in this area - of ‘mantiques’ tends to be the over 50s.

Cultural and social commentators have referenced the link between the retail phenomenon of what was described in 2003 as “50-quid bloke” and those active in today’s ‘mantiques’ trade 20 years on.

But whether to adorn ‘man-caves’ or ‘she-sheds’, auction rooms and sales in the provinces can prove treasure troves for such items.

The first two sales of 2023 at the Shouler & Son County Auction Rooms in Melton Mowbray are General Household, Vintage and Collectables Auction on Thursday 19^th January and Thursday 16^th February.

Auctions are open to members of the public, dealers and general visitors, but online or in-room bidders must pre-register.

For more details of the forthcoming January auction or to register as a bidder, see countyauctionrooms.co.uk/auctions/.