Zoohistorica, 2012

The Pilsen gathering of zoo nerds was one of the most enjoyable I have attended - not least because the zoo itself is so good.

The rather dull auction (enlivened, it must be said, by the organ-playing of Pilsen's Martin Vobruba - just about visible at the front of the auction). Hopefully, at Bristol Zoo, in 2013, the auction will be rather shorter, and there will be other fun and frivolity on the Saturday night.

Martin, if you're reading this, I've already put in a vote for you to play musical accompaniment to the auction every year. The campaign starts here!

What kind of stuff do they auction?

Arizona Docent said:

What kind of stuff do they auction?

Click to expand...

Good question! It's mainly stuff that people haven't been able to off-load in the exchange meet, so, by definition, there's a lot of old crud in there - or, to be more accurate, stuff that would be very nice if you didn't have it, but which most collectors have probably already got, carefully filed away at home (guidebooks for Augsburg Zoo from the 1980s, annual reports for Ostrava Zoo, recent leaflets advertising the zoos of southern Spain - all that kind of thing). Occasionally some generous soul donates something rather choice for auction - old zoo signs, for example, or a very nice old book. One year an antique zoo keeper's coat was bought by a collector from Belgium. Most packages, though, are just bags which are fairly pot-luckish. Maguari bought one for some pitiful amount this year and, I believe, got a tin full of old badges (rather nice!) and a bag full of carefully saved zoo tickets (rather poignant!). I think at the Bristol meet we may scale it down, and have a silent auction instead - as well as some other treats. The UK has to maintain its reputation for doing things slightly differently to the people of mainland Europe...