THE New Year has revealed some good news for a Tavistock charity shop ? it found that some donated items were worth rather more than originally thought.
Kathy Edwards, manager of the St Luke?s Hospice charity shop in Duke Street, often takes objects donated for sale at the shop for valuation, to make sure they have the correct price tag.
Last week she took some items, including a Viennese bronze miniature figure of a cockerel, and two prints, to Michael Newman?s valuation morning in the Bedford Hotel.
Mr Newman said: ?Usually such prints are worth £10 a pair, but these were late 19th century copper engravings by Ernest George of the City of Ghent in original frames and as such, Mrs Edwards went away with a price tag for the prints of £100!?
Mrs Edwards said staff at the charity shop always kept a close eye on their donations.
?I think you have to have an instinct for things and you rely on people to show you things. I?ve only been in this shop two years but in one of our shops a girl took an old bowl in to be valued and it was auctioned for £2,000!
?It was very old but it didn?t look that special ? you have to be really careful,? she said.
Mrs Edwards said staff at the shop always hoped for a pleasant surprise when they had goods valued.
?We had a ring which, if it had been original, would have been worth a lot of money.
?We knew it was a Grecian type, which if it had been the real thing would have been worth thousands.
?In the end it sold for about £10, but on the other hand, it?s all money for the charity,? she said.
Independent valuer Michael Newman holds free valuations at the Bedford Hotel on the second Friday of the month and at Abbey Hall in Plymouth every Tuesday morning.