More Ercol loveliness - how I 'saved' £1419

Do you remember my excitement when I found these Ercol chairs at a jumble sale for £8?

Well ever since one of my fave 'passing the time' activities has been searching for a couple more to complete the set.  A family of five sharing four chairs was beginning to lose its charm.  I considered getting chapel chairs, something modern, or an Ercol bench but nothing fitted the budget.

By a chance conversation I mentioned it to a friend who is a frequent visitor of our local auction rooms.  He promised to let me know if he ever saw some matches to our Ercol chiltern chairs.  Ideally I wanted another two.  Now remember the new version of these are £199 each (a price hike from £178 from last year - they must be popular).  So to just get another 2 matches could have set me back £398!

Well last weekend, not long after I'd mentioned the chairs to my friend the call came!  There were four in the next days auction and they looked to be in good condition! Yikes, I'd never done real life auctioning before and didn't know how it all worked, and if I'd be able to contain my excitement.

The Queen of Clean and I examined our budget and set a limit of £100 for the four, although upon discussion with my lovely generous mother she told me to go to £150 and she'd put in the extra.  Bless her.  The next morning came and I went down to register and see the chairs in the flesh.  They were perfect but I tried to act nonchalant in case anyone else sensed my excitement and became competition!

Here's my auction card, you need one of these before you place a bid and it ties you to any 'lots' you have won.  See, I've got the auction 'lingo' under my belt now.

I was a desperate lady in that auction room.  I knew I wouldn't leave without those beauties and when my turn came up I thrust my hand in the air defiantly and just left it there.  There was a very disappointed old lady in front of me but nothing was going to get between me and those Ercols.

I got them in the end for £140 after much adrenalin.  I also needed to pay a buyers premium of 15% making the total £165.  So a saving of £631 on four new chairs.  However if we take it a step further...eight new Chiltern Ercols from John Lewis would be £1592, and I have spent in total £173 therefore saving £1419.

Just look at all that criss cross loveliness.  We now have 6 around the table and another 2 nearby 'just in case'.

And in case you weren't fixated by the chairs and wondered what was on the table, here we are some spray painted yellow pine cones of course.  And a little stone bird on my jumble sale wicker placemats.

And because she was in the room at the same time as I took these shots, my cat Martha.  Who I think it must be said has excellent posture.