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Read the Stories
Copyright
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 Geoffrey
Russell passed away peacefully on 10th October 2007.
We shall all miss his love and laughter and we hope this web site will be a
fitting memorial to his amazing life.
Within this web site there are a selection of
interesting and amusing anecdotes which have been collated and edited from
Geoffrey's stories by his
son, Peter. More content will be added over the next few months.
We dedicate this website to his
memory and hope you will appreciate the range and depth of the adventures he
had. These pages are a tribute to a long and filled life and the happiest of
memories of a loving father to his son and daughter Lyndsay and Peter, the
warmest father-in-law to Mike and Anita and the most entertaining and adored
grandfather to Joshua, Josie and Tippi.
The stories start in the 1916,
and lead us through the golden age of antiques and chart Geoffrey's success as one
of England's well known, best loved and authoritative antique dealers.
"Geoffrey enjoyed telling me these
stories and I am so pleased to be able to pass them on to my children, my niece
and all his many friends and acquaintances. I hope all readers
enjoy these stories. For those of you who knew him and have stories you
would like to include, please email me at
info@antiquestories.co.uk and I
shall add them to the website.
If you would
like to leave a message or share a memory please email me at
info@antiquestories.co.uk. Your
kind thoughts and wishes would be very much appreciated."
Peter
Russell
"In the 1930's
England came off the Gold Standard and a gold sovereign became worth 22
shillings instead of 20, and my father was encouraged to open a gold & silver
buying shop in Market Street, St. Helier.
I was only twelve at that time, but I
loved looking at all the treasures being offered, admiring all the skills of the
long past craftsmen .
My Father, who
took to the new occupation, like a duck to water, was mainly interested on the
price of the precious metals as it provided a quick return for his outlay.
One of
the first memories I have of my profession as an Antiques Dealer was seeing my
Father breaking up a beautiful diamond & emerald necklace in its original
plush case just for the gold content, telling me it would show him a profit on
the price that he had paid.
I told him he
could had received much more had he sold it as an article.
After a great
deal of nagging on my part, and proving that fine goods were wanted for their
workmanship, he finally listened to me and started to display his purchases
without resorting to melt them down.
Of course I
did not get any credit for my wisdom"
This marked the start of Geoffrey's career in antiques. A career that was to
span over 50 years.
 Three of the stories (The First Shop, Antique Silver Drama and the Pussy Cat
Story) have a recording of Geoffrey telling the tale in his own words
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