Missed It By A Whisker

Many friends will know about my fondness for my patron saint, St Catherine. I keep an eye peeled for any representations of her, and have even gone to the lengths of commissioning two images of her. A little while ago I wandered onto eBay and discovered this lovely 19th-century silk banner with St Catherine on the front, resplendent with martyr's palm branch and wheel. The embroidery was a bit battered but heavy and rather glorious. The back of the banner appears to have had an image of the Virgin Mary once, but that's disappeared, so this isn't a piece in exactly pristine condition. Lovely though.

I thought I'd put in a bid for it. It's a fairly unique item, so anything up to, I don't know, a hundred quid I thought was fair and depending on how the bidding was going I could go a bit higher.

Five hundred and thirty-five pounds that went for. Five hundred and thirty-five pounds. Somebody likes St Catherine even more than I do.