Chairman Nic McElhatton held court at the bunfight, greeting a queue of well-wishers with hugs, kisses and intense conversation. His children were there too. “They were at the sale – the one and only time I’ve allowed them see me on the rostrum,” McElhatton told ATG.
Every generation and collecting area was represented, from the earliest joiners such as Dennis Cox to those who were not even born when it started – and a whole range of ages in between. Dealers (Ted Few, in energetic form) rubbed shoulders with auctioneers (Charles Miller, ebullient as ever).
Nostalgia abounded and the mood among revellers (some of whom partied on until 2am or later) was neatly summed up by an appropriate swansong played earlier at the last auction: Edith Piaf’s Je ne Regrette Rien.
