Under The Hammer

Roucous, rowdy and sometimes fundraising - David Lay remembers his first auctions dating back four decades.

- David Lay

THE Penzance auctioneer David Lay started working in the auction trade as a fresh faced seventeen year old. Now 60, he has spent the last 43 years honing his encyclopaedic knowledge of art and antiques but also becoming a highly sought after and very entertaining performer on the rostrum. A lifetime’s experience of ‘making it look easy’ was called upon for a recent Porthleven charity auction to raise funds for the Fishermen’s Mission. In front of a packed and rather boisterous crowd, David energetically sold nearly 200 lots, a feat which took nearly five hours, all the time staying in control, handling hecklers and most importantly, extracting the last pound out of every bidder. The auction of artworks, painted on wood cut from the harbour baulks that had been destroyed in the 2014 storms, raised an extraordinary £40,000, probably the highest total for any charity auction David has ever conducted.