Best Sellers!

Peter’s passion makes him talk of the antiques world

A BOOK on Victorian dumps penned by Saddleworth collector Peter Sellers has taken the antiques world by storm.

A passion for collecting dumps — paperweights and whimsies made from the days’ leftovers by workers in glass-making factories, prompted Mr Sellers to write the book.

He forked out £3,000 to pay for 150 copies to be published, and said the reaction from collectors both in the UK and worldwide had left him “somewhat bemused and even shellshocked”

The modest pensioner said: “I must have obviously benefited greatly by writing the first and only book on this obviously very specialist subject. I now have nearly three files of communications from all over the world.

“One gentleman in New York, after buying one book, bought six further books to give to friends at £51 each including the postage.”

Mr Sellers’s new-found fame came after his fascination with dumps led to him striking up a friendship with the world’s biggest dump collector, Californian William Drew Gaskill.

He was working on writing a book, and when he died suddenly at the age of 57, Mr Sellers agreed to finish it when asked by the family.

It is the only book documenting the history and making of dumps, which makes the 78-year-old former chartered surveyor a world authority on the subject.

The impact of the book on the antique and collecting world has been dramatic, and resulted in Mr Sellers being invited to give numerous talks on the subject throughout the UK.

He was also invited to attend a book signing at the 15th Cambridge Glass Fair held earlier in the year, which attracted more than 100 specialist exhibitors from across the UK and Europe. Among those who bought the book were the Antiques Road Show’s Andy McConnell, and his co-presenter Hilary Kay, also owns a copy.

One has also been added to the National Published Archive, at the request of the British Library.

Mr Sellers has fewer than 40 copies left, with no plans to have any more printed.

It costs £39 plus postage on eBay, or from its author at peter.sellers2@btopenworld.com