antiques Roadshow
A really nice little item was featured on BBC1’s Antiques
Roadshow on Sunday 08 July 2018. George Formby Snr’s
cigarette case which it turns out was a gift from his beloved wife
Eliza.
I feel that the valuer was perhaps a little miserly (or maybe not
very knowledgeable about Formby memorabilia) in adding only
£300 to the value because of the Formby name. A price of a
packet of cigarettes is now roughly £10 so I would have thought a
very personal item of one of the icons of British variety would
attract much more interest than the value of 30 packs of fags!
But it was a really nice insight into a treasured Formby item that
has probably not been viewed previously from anyone within the
GFS. It begs the question, just what else is out there belonging to
the famous Formbys?
I have gazed upon George Formby Snr’s date book which
thankfully Ted Formby allowed Gerry Mawdsley to photograph
every page and is now safe within the GFS photo archive. Where
might the younger George Formby’s date book be?
Eliza’s gift - “To the one man in the world”