Over 10,000 postcards showing the history of Sheffield have sold at auction for £27,000

Over 10,000 postcards, each showing a snapshot of Sheffield in a bygone era, have sold at auction for £27,000. Pictured is just one of the postcards.

On average, collected at a rate of over one card every two days for 50 years, the single owner collection represents a true pictorial history of Sheffield, from the late Victorian era through to the 1980s.

After a significant amount of pre-auction interest in this unique collection and strong bidding in the auction room from buyers both in the room and online, the last lot sold of postcards has been sold, bringing the total hammer price to £27,000.

Auctioneer John Morgan said; “It has been a pleasure to bring this collection to the market and very satisfying to achieve more than double the initial top estimate for the vendor, reflecting the years of dedication he has spent creating this collection. After all of his hard work we are delighted with the result.”

The collection was put together by a Sheffield man with an insight of capturing the changing face of the city in its many aspects over nearly 100 years.

Although many of the postcards are topographical in nature and meticulously catalogued in postcode order, the postcards also reach out into many aspects of Sheffield's social history including transport, sport, politics, industry, entertainment and advertising.

They also detail many eclectic subjects including cards of the 1921 Great fire of Heeley, Sheffield's largest peace-time fire, the 1914/15 Sheffield United F.A. cup winning team and a wonderful selection of 1920's works trips aboard the charabancs of W. Caudle and Co. There were around 250 lots of postcards sold in total.

John Morgan added: “Without doubt this was the largest single city collection of postcards we have ever been asked to bring to the market and it feels wonderfully fitting that it has been collected and has been sold in Sheffield. It is an outstanding collection.”

The next Specialist Coins, Stamps and Postcards Auction will be at Sheffield Auction Gallery on November 7, and consignments are now invited.

For further information please contact John Morgan at the saleroom on 0114 281 6161 or e-mail [email protected]