Christies Behind the scene tour

Georgie Atkin Beyhums and I had been preparing this day for a while, a visit to the internationally renowned Christies' Auction House plus an exclusive behind the scenes tour. Even so, when Georgie and I met up in Saint James' I had no idea what she had in store for me, and it took me completely by surprise.

By way of some background, Christies was formed in 1766 by James Christie who conducted their first ever sale in London in on the 5th December 1766. Christies predominately deals in old art and ancient objects that it collects from private clients. Christies' main rivals in the auction world are Sotheby's . I have known the very special Georgie Atkin ever since I was a young Alexander, so we have been family friends as long as I can remember. We both have a deep fascination with history.

I, especially, have loved Greek and Roman history since I was a child and Christies have experts in both. One of the first surprises Georgie had in store for me, was that it was the ex-head of this division who showed me around. As a result, I was introduced to all the specialists in the antiques department. It was an momentous occasion for me as I was able to fire away all of my questions at the experts. One of which was asking how they organised the sales. Accordingly to the person I spoke to, they acquire the objects from privately owned clients and then the experts have six months to collect and catalogue all the antiques into a list that can be bought.

One item I loved seeing was the head of Apollo, the sun god, which is steeped in history. The reason being is that there has always been a link towards the sun in 90 percent of religions and most are based on or loosely around Apollo. Even in the Catholic Church, when they observed much of the older religions they tried to recreate the emphasis on the sun. One can see this in how the sunlight is directed onto the alter and how all Churches have big windows - that is how the Sun god Apollo is now observed in the Catholic Church.

In the picture heading this article Georgie and I are holding a five thousand year old Egyptian vase. It has beautiful colours. I have always had a appreciation of ancient objects like these, almost a reverence as if they were sacred. In some instances this as really the case as they held religious meanings and predated Jesus.

Another object which caught my fancy was a beautiful jade stone. It was smooth to the touch, I admired its green colour. I could only imagine how much history this stone would have witnessed. I also loved the Jade axe head which is from the Late Neolithic period. To think that if this stone could have talked it would give a very interesting lecture indeed.