AUTOGRAPH BOOK WITH SOME AMAZING AUTOGRAPHS DONATED FOR OUR CHARITY AUCTION

We were contacted recently by Elaine McCann who runs the Eccles Community Art Gallery and the Barton Theatre Company amongst other things, a very busy woman with a quite frankly astounding offer to help our VIP (Very Important Pensioners) party in November.

Elaine's father was Jack McCann, a man with an outstanding political career, he was elected a councillor on Eccles Borough Council in 1945 and was leader of the Labour Group, he was also an Alderman in Eccles from 1952 and Mayor 1955–56 and the Labour Member of Parliament for Rochdale from 1958 - 1972. a truly glittering career.

Whilst in Parliament Jack would get autographs for Elaine and her brother, these included Nye Bevan, Harold Wilson, Ludovic Kennedy, Hugh Gaitskill, Clement Atlee, Bessie Braddock,  etc and a few celebrities who visited The Houses of Parliament including the boxer, Floyd Patterson and the athlete, Chris Brasher. in all about 20 autographs.

Elaine has decided that instead of just lying in a drawer at home they should be put to a good use and has offered them to us, with a view to selling them to raise money for our fund.

To be quite honest we have no real idea of the value, the Nye Bevan alone is worth at least £60 according to autograph sale sites, we would much rather keep them all together in the autograph book than sell them individually.

Do we contact a specialist sales room who would take a hefty commission or is anybody interested in both political history and autograph collecting?

We would love to hear from you with your opinions, but it's a nice problem to have.