I LOVE a PG Wodehouse novel. The Code of the Woosters is a cracker, not least as the country house shenanigans are driven by two determined antique collectors fighting over an 18th-century, silver cow-creamer. Hence its somewhat tangential relevance to this column. Before you ask, Bertie W and I are equally uninspired by cow-creamers. However, his uncle and the unscrupulous Sir Watkyn Bassett will go to any lengths not only to possess this one, ‘a sinister, leering, Underworld sort of animal’, but to ensure that the other does not. It is a perceptive insight into the devious mentality of some collectors. After all, great comedy is usually rooted in reality, otherwise it risks becoming unbelievable.
The serious ‘column’ point here is, put that creamer into auction and who knows how much the two fanatics would have paid for it? Instead, Sir Watkyn nobbles Bertie’s rather dim uncle, pops into the antique shop where it is for sale and buys it,
