Q&A with Elizabeth Talbot
Behind the Gavel
A conversation with our Auction Director
In the fast-paced world of auctioneering, where history, value, and excitement converge, it takes a skilled hand and keen insight to bring it all together.
At TW Gaze, our Auction Director plays a pivotal role in orchestrating seamless events, curating extraordinary collections, and connecting buyers and sellers in moments that are nothing short of electric. We recently sat down with Elizabeth Talbot, who offered an insider’s perspective within the auction world, and share her journey to becoming an industry expert, revealing what makes her role so uniquely rewarding.
In this exclusive Q&A, discover the passion that drives the heart of our business.
Your working background, when and how you became interested in antiques / auctioneering?
The direction I should take through life was far from obvious in the beginning. I left school with three A-levels and, having not quite achieved the grades required by my chosen university, my one longstanding aspiration was foiled. I interpreted the setback as an initiative to abandon a purely academic route and pursue employment, but without having any inkling about what I wanted to do. My parents encouraged some self-assessment and this highlighted my enthusiasm for social history, heritage, old buildings and their contents.
I grew up visiting museums, art galleries, National Trust properties, antiques fairs, flea markets, and occasionally, auctions; these were the locations for family timeoff and they represented enjoyable, happy holiday activities. They were places where the past was made tangible and I warmed to that. However, as to forging a career and earning a living from working with historic artefacts, that had never been in my career mistress’s syllabus, and I had never considered it a possibility. At this stage I could have investigated several avenues, including curatorship, restoration or archaeology. However, I’d enjoyed studying economics in the sixth form and whilst dealing has never appealed to me, I was excited at the thought of work within a vibrant specialised marketplace, and hence the prospect of working in an auction house was defined. Advice gleaned from an eminent fine art valuer at Phillips Auctioneers set me on my way and after hand-writing and posting surprisingly few letters of introduction to auction rooms around the UK, I was invited for interview at a large firm seeking a pupil to train.
The initial successful encounter led me to a three-year apprenticeship followed by progression and advancement through that business, plus professional qualifications from the Royal Institute of Valuers and Auctioneers, before promotion to a new company.
My employment at TW Gaze began after I had already spent a decade in the auction world.
How long you’ve been at TW Gaze?
Since 1995.
What you love most about your career?
People. Whilst my career is objects-focussed, it’s actually all about people. Without the creativity, artistry and productivity of people of the past there would be no artefacts to appreciate and learn from; and every object provides insight into the lives, experiences, ingenuity and capabilities of our forebears. Behind every object are people: past owners and present custodians with stories to tell and information to share. People, clients and customers, require the knowledge and professionalism I can provide, sometimes at very difficult and emotional times in their lives.
Meanwhile, modern auctions supported by online bidding platforms are impressive, but speaking as an auctioneer, by far the best auction atmosphere is generated by having people gathered in person, creating excited expectation and competitive tension. Collectors and experts are the source of information and insight and it is a career which is forever teaching me something new.
Market places are powered by ever-changing trends and fashions, and influenced by such things as economical factors, financial investment, politics, sentiment, and psychology: all of these are people generated, and as people are fickle and changeable, my career never lacks interest.
How did you become involved working on Television?
I have worked with the BBC throughout most of my career. In the early days, it was with various regional radio stations as Antiques Valuer and then as Theatre Critic. My main television work began in the late 1990’s when a colleague of mine from a previous firm, who was then working as advisor to ‘Going for a Song’, recommended me as an on-screen professional for the programme.
It was in the days when Michael Parkinson and Anne Robinson was in the chair, and I filmed several series. That led to TW Gaze being approached by the BBC to host early auctions for ‘Bargain Hunt’, after which I was invited to be one of their experts travelling across the UK.
The same thing happened when they launched ‘Flog It!’ and I worked as an expert on both programmes for many years. I have always thoroughly enjoyed all my media work. Other specialist BBC antiques programmes have filmed regularly at Diss Auction Rooms over the last 25 years, including ‘Cash in the Attic’, ‘Antiques Road Trip’, ‘Salvage Hunters’ and ‘Travelling Auctioneers’, so the BBC link continues to be an experience shared by the auction team.
Funny moments when filming or auctioneering?
I once sold a lot to a gentleman who rushed into the sale room in a hurry, waving determinedly from the back of the room. I was enormously relieved on his behalf that he had not been too late to bid on his chosen lot, and continued to take his hand signals against other bidders in the room until the item was eventually knocked down to him. At the point of his successful purchase he prompted a lady at the front of the room to provide his buyer’s number. During a break from my selling duties, I encountered the lady and gentleman seated in our cafe, full of good humour and eager to talk. They were intending to tell the story of their auction experience for years to come, they said. I expressed delight that they were so pleased with their purchase. “No”, they said, and explained that the husband had not intended to buy the lot... he was waving to his wife upon his arrival! “But you continued to bid!?! You should have said something at the time.” I was bemused; I had previously always denied the possibility of anyone buying from auction by mistake. “I was too scared to stop.” was his reply, and we all continued to chuckle.
Favourite item/s you’ve valued during your career?
I have no specific favourite, because that’s impossible to define. However, my favourite scenario is when I can identify the least appreciated item in a house as being the most valuable and precious. To confirm the fine painting above the fireplace is worth the handsome price the owner already knew it to be offers no personal satisfaction, but to enlighten them that the disregarded “old, ugly” bowl the dog is drinking out of in the garden is a prized 18th Century Chinese bronze censor worth several hundred pounds provides a good feeling.
Equally, highlighting a piece of rare Clarice Cliff lying disliked and unloved in the back of a cupboard belonging to someone desperately in need of funds is one of my favourite situations of all. Not every treasure is defined by a high valuation figure, nor prized most because it carries the biggest price tag.
Any memorable events over the years?
There are many, a sample few being:
1 - Saving an ugly disc of carved ivory found in a drawer from being thrown away because I sensed it was of great importance. Research proved it was a Medieval mirror-back and it went on to sell for five figures, back in the late 1980’s.
2 - Being auctioneer for an E.A.C.H. fundraising dinner held in the Natural History Museum, London, under the gaze of Dippy the replica Diplodocus skeleton, immediately followed on stage by Ed Sheeran who gave an exclusive concert.
3 - Selling an oil painting for £160,000.00 from an opening bid of £100.00. Catalogued as a decorative Victorian copy, it was bought as an original work by an Italian master.
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