"It seems that this item should be sold off quickly once we return to London." After listening to Liang En's explanation for a few minutes, Pierce had to change his previous thoughts.
The reason for deducing that the box was a coffin was also quite simple, as all the decorative floral reliefs on the box were either chrysanthemums or white lilies. In addition to this, there were also some adorable little angels adorning the top.
"This item can be considered an antique," Liang En remarked, looking at a corner carving inside the box and mentioning "1873." "However, getting rid of it might not be so easy."
Historically, ceremonial coffins were quite popular among common people during the Victorian era, as they might not have had much money but still wished for a dignified funeral.
So, some merchants accordingly prepared such items. The family of the deceased could rent these items from them to make the funeral more dignified. Later, for the burial, they would switch to a less expensive coffin.
The coffin that Pierce had now found appeared to be intended for children who died young, considering the child mortality rate of that era. Therefore, the production of such items wouldn't have been very high, but it certainly wasn't insignificant.
"Indeed, it's not easy to part with," Pierce sighed after hearing Liang En's words. "But the world of collectors encompasses all sorts of items, so I can still find someone willing to purchase this."
Pierce wasn't wrong about this aspect. At least in England, collectors with eccentric tastes existed, including those who collected ancient Egyptian coffins or even mummies. A ceremonial coffin was just a drop in the ocean.
However, this small piece was just an add-on. Pierce had already far exceeded the minimum threshold he had set for himself before coming, in terms of acquiring Victorian-era furniture.
After a morning of sorting through things, he had discovered several Victorian-era furniture pieces in the room. These included a cupboard, a square table with a matching set of four chairs, a tea table, a display cabinet, an oil painting by a contemporary commercial artist, and a dressing table.
While other pieces of furniture might look like they were from the Victorian era, they were actually modern replicas. However, Liang En and Pierce couldn't discern this when they had looked through the gaps in the window boards earlier.
"By the way, what did you find upstairs earlier?" After sharing his own findings from the morning, Pierce inquired about Liang En's discoveries.
"The attic mostly had some old discarded clothing, as they had to consider the strength of their house's ceiling," Liang En explained, taking out a bag containing his spoils. "But I still managed to find quite a few valuable things."
He then began to take out the items he had found, one by one.
Seeing the complete set of "Harry Potter" books and related materials, Pierce's expression remained calm. However, when Liang En pulled out the teddy bear, Pierce suddenly became excited.
"This is a Teddy bear produced by the German company Steiff, and it's the highest-priced limited edition among them."
"How do you know?" Liang En picked up the teddy bear, looking rather puzzled. He recognized it as something from the 70s, possibly valuable, but he couldn't discern the specific details.
"Because my ex-girlfriend was really fond of this thing, I did my research back then," Pierce explained, pointing to the tag pinned with a gold stud on the left ear of the teddy bear in front of them. "You can distinguish it from here."
"Teddy bears produced by Steiff are divided into three types, distinguishable by this tag. The ones with a yellow background and red letters are the common ones, while those with a white background and black letters are significant replicas. And the one we have right now, with a white background and red letters, is the most valuable limited edition among them."
"However, unfortunately, this particular one belongs to the more commonly found limited editions. It can't be compared to the limited edition they made in collaboration with LV, which was valued at $2.1 million."
"So, how much is this thing worth approximately?" Liang En wasn't very interested in plush toys, so he was more concerned about its potential selling price.
"Let me check... Ah, here it is." After a few minutes of searching on his phone, Pierce quickly found an almost identical teddy bear listed on an auction house website.
Liang En leaned over and found that the auctioned teddy bear had a final bid of £2,700. However, compared to the teddy bear he held in his hands, the auctioned one seemed slightly more worn.
"So, the price for the teddy bear we have should be between £2,500 and £3,500." After comparing the two, Liang En arrived at a reasonable conclusion.
"That's right, this is an additional gain." Pierce also smiled, saying, "I never thought those attics filled with clutter would have so many things."
"And there's more." Saying this, Liang En reached into the deepest part of his bag and took out a copy of "Harry Potter." "This is my most valuable find this time, a first edition of 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.'"
"The version that was printed with only 500 copies?" While Pierce felt lukewarm about the novel itself, as part of British literature, he had naturally studied such matters.
"That's right, that edition. I remember a similar book was auctioned for nearly £30,000 before. And ours is in even better condition, so I estimate it could fetch an additional two to three thousand pounds."
"It's not just that." Wearing gloves, Pierce carefully flipped through the book and then said, "Don't forget, this book is signed by the author, which adds a more significant commemorative value."
After examining the book, Pierce immediately returned to the car, took out a specialized plastic bag, and placed the book inside. He then put the bag into a small safe box in his car, meant for safeguarding such valuable items.
The afternoon's work was much like the daytime; their main task was to tidy up the entire room. For this purpose, Liang En even brought over a metal detector.
Unfortunately, most of the rooms here had already been searched by the heirs of the previous owner. So, apart from two silver coins from the 1950s and a Victorian-era iron plant stand, they didn't find anything during the afternoon.
That evening, the two of them didn't stay in a hotel but instead chose to sleep in sleeping bags in the room, making do for the night.
Early the next morning, after getting up and having breakfast at a nearby McDonald's, they transformed into movers and began loading the furniture onto the cars.
Perhaps the former owner was concerned that these antique pieces of furniture might get damaged during the move, so all the large pieces were on the ground floor. This conveniently suited Liang En and Pierce, who weren't very experienced.
After wrapping the furniture with the old fabric they found upstairs, the actual moving process began.
To be honest, if professional movers were doing this, it probably wouldn't take more than an hour. However, with Liang En and Pierce, who were novices, working together, it took them a whole morning to load everything onto the two cars.
That day, Pierce drove the medium-sized truck from the shop, similar to what moving companies use, with a door on the side that could be pulled down to serve as a ramp. This made their work much easier.