Burnley mum’s 4,500 salt and pepper pots collection to be sold

A woman’s cherished collection of 4,500 salt and pepper pots is to go under the auctioneer’s hammer.

Christine Edwards, who died last year aged 80, featured on TV shows including BBC One’s Antiques Road Trip and Flog It.

Mrs Edwards, from Burnley in Lancashire, loved her expansive cruets collection, which included gnomes, Noah’s Ark and Elvis Presley (complete with guitar).

Her daughter Amanda Edwards said that while the family and loved ones had kept some of the more sentimental sets, the remainder would be sold on Saturday at Shaw’s Auction House in Blackburn so they could “go to homes where they will love them as much as my mum did”.

Ms Edwards said her “shopaholic” mother “loved to be surrounded by pretty things”.

The 59-year-old said her mum had “always been into antiques and always loved miniature things”.

She added: “I don’t know why she particularly [kept] salt and peppers but she loved the miniature nature of them.”

Ms Edwards said she had kept her mum’s favourite set, featuring a camel.

Ms Edwards said her mother never actually put salt in any of her collectable sets since it would corrode them.

“She would get angry if anyone suggested putting salt in them,” adding that they had a normal run of the mill set for meal times.

She said it had been emotional for her and her brother Ollie to prepare the collection for sale.

Shaw’s Auction House said it had been a pleasure to help with the sale of the “unique and extraordinary” collection featuring “just about any genre you could think of”.

A spokesperson said estimating a financial value for the collection was very difficult “as it’s a completely uncharted territory and a unique sale”.

They said there was considerable interest from the United States.

The auction starts at 17:00 BST on Saturday.