A lifetime’s collecting goes under the hammer at Scarva Auctions

Mid Ulster museum was the passion of Spence McKeown. Well known locally as a business man from Tamlaghtmore Road, Stewartstown Mr McKeown ran a wholesale business from the premises beside his home up to the mid 1970s.

Following his retirement from that business he turned part of his premises into a showroom for second hand furniture and antiques.

As time went on more of the space became occupied by his private collection and in the late 90s he stopped trading from the site and dedicated his resources to the formation of his private museum.

Over the subsequent years many historical societies and church groups etc organised trips to the museum, often spending hours perusing the many items on display.

Spence travelled all over the province to find interesting items to fill the shelves of his museum which is possibly one of the most diverse private collections in Northern Ireland.

When asked what the most unusual item in the sale was, his son Andrew said it would have to be the full set of Ration tickets from the Irish famine of 1847.

These were produced at the time as meal vouchers for soup kitchens around the country.

The set in the sale were purchased by his father at an auction in the Royal Arms Hotel almost 40 years ago and he has not seen a full set offered for sale since.

Many of the items were purchased in the locality as farmers moved on to more modern machinery. These have been lovingly restored where necessary and are mostly in working order.

Another lot of note is The Penny Farthing which was purchased from a clearance sale in the Cookstown area and again has been in the collection for around 50 years.

Mr McKeown was regularly seen driving his Austin A7 car around vintage shows across the province. It was purchased from a family in the Portstewart area in its current condition over 20 years ago and again will be offered in the sale guaranteed to generate a lot of interest.

Iain Donald from Scarva Auctions said we were delighted when asked to conduct this sale.

He added: “I have never walked around a collection and had to ask what so many of the items were, an indication of the rarity of some of the lots on offe

The sale will be held onsite at 63 Tamlaghtmore Rd, Stewartstown, Co Tyrone BT71 5NZ on Wednesday, 5th July and Thursday, 6th July at 11am each day.

There will be 3 days of viewing prior to the sale (Sat 1st July 9am to 2pm, Mon 3rd July 11am to 8pm, Tues 4th July 11am to 5pm) and live internet bidding on all lots.

See full details at www.scarvaauctions.com

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