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900 Miles and a Naval Cutlass

Posted: 12/11/18 (13:08pm)

It was a busy and very enjoyable weekend. I drove just under 900 miles and came home with a great find.
My road trip began on Friday morning in Scotland. I drove non-stop down to Derby, about 300 miles south, and picked up a lovely late 18th Century, George III naval cutlass. The cutlass has a plain wooden grip with a brass D-guard and scallop shell. The 656mm, broad, curved blade is stamped with a crowned GR. I also picked up a nice, bespoke George V P1897 infantry officer's sword.
From Derby I headed down to a motorway services just south of Peterborough, to rendezvous with a friend and long time customer, to return to him a lovely Georgian hanger that I had worked on and to collect from him a 1796 light cavalry sabre for restoration.
By then, it was about 8pm and Sue and I had had enough driving. It was time for supper so we enjoyed a deliciously unhealthy KFC at the services before continuing our journey to my parents home.

On Saturday morning, joined by my parents, we drove to Sheringham on the Norfolk coast. I left Sue and my parents to enjoy Sheringham while I headed off in the hopes of buying a few more swords. Unfortunately I didn't manage to but I enjoyed the morning and meeting the man who had the swords for sale. The seller wanted a fair retail price for his swords but it would not have allowed me to cover my costs, much less make any money so we were unable to do a deal.
By then it was past 1pm and time for lunch. We had reserved a table for 1.15pm so had to rush. I never did get time to stroll around Sheringham and enjoy being by the seaside, which was a shame because Sheringham is a pretty town and it was a beautiful sunny day.
The drive however was lovely. Norfolk is a beautiful county.

After a brief visit to a large car boot sale on Sunday morning - you never know what you might find (this time it was nothing), it was time for Sue and I to head back up to Scotland. We had a long drive home.
It was a lovely weekend. It is always great to see my folks, and to be able to combine doing so with buying more stock and collecting restoration commissions just adds a cherry to the cake.