In a little over a week, Their Royal Highnesses will ascend the Sylvan thrones of Æthelmearc. To support their reign, Duchess Christence Blackmoore, Baroness Ellesbeth Donofrey and cohorts will host an auction to raise money for the Royal Travel Fund at Coronation.
For the White Tier from Baroness Ellesbeth: “I have enjoyed modest infamy for a very special cookie I bake. It’s chocolate chip, but not your mama’s chocolate chip….I use thick cut bacon from my local Amish butcher, candy it myself with dark brown sugar, chop it up and add it to the most perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe I have found! Just ask Baron Ichi, who has dubbed these “crack cookies”… there will be two winners for this offering.”
The auction format will be as follows: Items will be split into two tiers. For items on the WHITE table, tickets are $1 each, 6 for $5, 13 for $10 and 28 for $20. For items on the RED table, tickets are 2 for $5, 6 for $10 and 15 for $20. Simply purchase the tickets for the corresponding tier you’d like to bid on and drop your ticket in the marked receptacle for the item.
Over the next several days leading up to the event, photos of many of the items will be posted on a special FB page here, so you can plan your finances for the weekend accordingly. (Join the event page for updates!) Many thanks to the generous and talented gentles who donated items.
Baroness Ellesbeth says “Duchess Christence and I are actually subjects of the Kingdom of the East. However we have both separately enjoyed a long friendship with TRH’s. They actually lived less than an hour from my Shire when they resided out here. Last reign they had talked about wanting to travel as widely and often as possible especially to those areas of Æthelmearc that had not had a Royal Presence in some time. Her Grace Christence, as a former Queen, and I as a veteran of several Royal Households know intimately what goes into a reign, from the logistics to the travel, which inevitably lead to the finances. We actually ran two fundraisers during their last reign, so when His Highness won again, we started planning.
For the Red Tier: Ever wish you could kick your garb up a notch? Wouldn’t some hand-woven trim be wonderful but you lack the time, equipment or know-how to weave it yourself? Well why not take a chance to win just over 9 and half feet of Inkle woven trim in Æthelmearc’s colors? The band is woven in 5/2 pearle cotton and is 3/4″ wide.
“Her Grace Christence has run several successful fundraisers over her time in the SCA. I was happy to help with these fundraisers. Between us we have a pretty extensive network and major thrift store shopping skills which enable us to find a wide range of lovely items for auctions. We want to give this endeavor the best chance for success.
“In heading into this one, I was thinking about how events can be crowded and you don’t get to see everything that goes on, and on a practical level, we all like to go to events prepared, I mean when you know there will be a ton of merchants, you might tuck a few extra dollars in your purse for shopping, and if you know specifically one may have something you want, you plan for it. That thought train, coupled with recent conversations with Sir Tanaka about the role of social media in our Society and how can we best use it to promote and attract membership led me to the idea to do a FB page for the auction and let people know first, it’s happening so they can look for us, how it’s working so they are prepared and showcase items to hopefully build interest and excitement. You may not have a lot of money for hand woven trim, but $5 gets you two chances to win 9.5 feet of it. So far the FB page seems to be helping make the auction more visible.
Again for the Red Tier: You will make a statement without saying a word wearing this hand beaded necklace. Lady Syelet Peifferin took some hand made lace, a zillion beads and viola! This exquisite piece of work….
We have some lovely donations, Lady Syelet Pfeifferin (East) who specializes in high German garb has made a gorgeous hat and a beaded necklace, Lady Erzebet Fauconneau (Æthelmearc) is donating a selection of her hand made soaps. Vicountess Rosalind Ashworthe (Æthelmearc) will likely have the most unusual and memorable donation,an experienced and talented tablet weaver is creating a beautiful band of woven trim in a period pattern, the fun part is one of the fibers in the pattern actually glows in the dark! Donna Fede di Fiore (Æthelmearc) has generously donated a 16th century gown she only wore twice and no long wears. I’ve been busy too, the inkle woven trim was my weaving, I have hand molded skull shaped sugar cubes to go with the skull teaspoon, and in the coffee lovers basket, there will be imported coffee candy, chocolate covered espresso beans and a jar of the coffee jelly I just finished canning before I wrote this letter to you. There are several more items joining these, both tiers of the table will be full of fun and lovely things.”
The Gazette urges all to bring a few extra dollars to Coronation and support this worthy cause!