Top brass in Christie's sale of The Casimir Collection

THE FIRST “antique” I ever bought was a set of horse brasses attached to a black leather strap which, as a feckless boy, I thought my mother might quite like for her birthday present. Truth be told, of course, I liked them more than she did.

See a slideshow of The Casimir Collection

It was sometime before I learned what she already knew: the horse brasses were reproduction (that is fakes)so their attractiveness quickly diminished and I vowed never to be fooled again. Ah well, we can all hope ...

In those days, real brass and copper antiques were worth a small fortune by comparison with today. I remember attending a house contents sale in the 1970s where two sisters and their brother could not agree on how the possessions of their late parents should be shared out.

In the event, the brother, who was clearly better off than his sisters, paid huge sums for anything he fancied, while buyers like me could only stand and watch.

I say better off, but as a beneficiary of his parents’ estate, any monies raised from the

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The Ins and Outs of a new antiques collecting year

THE TOAST is ... a new year of collecting opportunity.

Another 12 months in which to indulge one’s passion, splurge yet more cash on knickknacks and fripperies and generally fill walls and any remaining flat surfaces with completely useless objects that you simply cannot live without.

But then you’re a true collector, addicted to a hobby that has neither rhyme nor reason. You hunt out stuff that is old and therefore hard to find and when you find it, the red mist returns ...

Good for you, I say. But why do you collect?

Click here to see some suggestions

Do you collect to a plan or pattern? Do you follow the crowd and collect what’s currently in fashion, or do you set the trend and buy for love ... or for money? And anyway, does it matter?

I don’t pretend to have the answers, but having watched the fine art auction market at close quarters for the last 12 months (actually, the last 20 years) I think I know what’s in, what’s out and what’s up and coming. Here’s my selection.

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