Treasure in your attic? Bring it to the Community Centre today

Top: Carina Doyle and her daughter Freya with appraiser Gavin. Bottom: Viola Laumans and her daughter Emerald with Viola's old camera and lenses; and coins and old watches brought along by Joe Mallon and friends.

"There's steady traffic," Kilcullen Community Centre manager Enda O'Neill said this morning about an hour after the start of the Vintage Roadshow in the Centre, writes Brian Byrne.

Steady, and an interesting mixture of items brought in by local people for valuation, and perhaps sale.

'Congo' Joe Mallon had an interesting selection of pocket watches he acquired in the 1960s while on peacekeeping duties in the Belgian Congo, one with an inscription in French dating to 1886. "It was a first prize for something," he noted. Other people had collections of coins, jewellery, and more, much of it having lain forgotten in drawers and attics.

Viola Laumans, there with her daughter Emerald, had brought a collection of old cameras and lenses from the days when film was still used, including a Pentax Spotmatic (which was familiar to this writer, as my first SLR camera was one just like it). "They were just in the attic, looking a little sad," she told me. "I haven't used them for years."

Carina Doyle, with her daughter Freya, had brought a 'treasure' chest of old tools, a sword blade, and a pair of handcuffs probably from the early 19th century. "They are old, though unfortunately they were in the ground or damp and are very rusty," appraiser Gavin from the Vintage Roadshow said. The tools included an old pump-action paraffin blow-lamp, and an old lever-action oil can.

The event runs until 4pm today. Who knows what treasure might turn up? It could be yours ...

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