“Auction Appraisal Fun with TV Personalities Marylou Combalier and Stéphane Vanhandenhoven”

All that was missing were the cameras of France 2 and the film crew of the program Affaire concluded. This morning of Friday May 12, the Brussels merchant Stéphane Vanhandenhoven and the Montalbanian auctioneer Marylou Combalier appraised hundreds of objects and works of art brought by the Tarn-et-Garonnais. The reception hall of the Montauban auction house was far too small to make the sellers wait there. Paintings, jewellery, vases, folk costumes… it was the big unpacking in front of these two specialists who regularly take part in the TV show hosted by Sophie Davant. “I am delighted that Stéphane has accepted my invitation to take part in these 17^e Hammer Days, organized by the National Syndicate of Voluntary Auction Houses. These meetings allow auctioneers and their experts to welcome the public to the auction rooms for free appraisals, explains Marylou Combalier. A great opportunity to democratize the world of auction rooms and appraisals. »

Old links with Tarn-et-Garonne…

It was also an opportunity for many sellers to meet Stéphane Vanhandenhoven, merchant who became the star of the TV show broadcast in the afternoons. Amused, the expert took part in the guessing game with sellers who tried to surprise him on the history and nature of the goods unpacked. “I like these privileged contacts with this public of bargain hunters who seek to surprise me. But if everything is done with a smile, I understand that I often disappoint them in the expertise that I do, he admits. They bring a good that they consider rare but the value they have of it is often sentimental. »
But why find Stéphane Vanhandenhoven this Friday morning so far from his Brussels boutique? “I’m coming for Marylou who had no trouble convincing me. She’s talented, young and she’s a woman. Three qualities for this job. I also come to a department that I know well. My father had been placed by the Red Cross with a family from Honor-de-Cos during the Second World War, behind the demarcation line. He has kept excellent memories of these three years spent in this family of sharecroppers. He so immersed me with his stories of fishing, hunting, local gastronomy… that we found this family many years later. I still preserve today this very strong bond with the descendants of this family. I also remember that it was in Montauban, Place Nationale, that my father bought me my first razor from Napoleon: a painful memory because at the age of 17 I cut myself when shaving my first duvet. he blurts out laughing. Between good humor and expertise, the morning did not drag out.