Alerting PAS to an Unrecorded "Buckinghamshire" Find [Updated]

 

On seeing a link to the article on the harness-brooch on Andy Brockman's Pipeline, I asked on Twitter "When did author of this article contact Hanson's with questions about this? Was it before the PAS database entry suddenly appeared on Sunday 21st February 2021? Who reported this to @findsorguk? The database uses what seem to be the dealer's photos..". The answer I got was intriguing:

Dr Simon Maslin @spmaslin 25 lut 2021
W odpowiedzi do @PortantIssues i @findsorguk
@findsorguk [PAS] was alerted by myself and some colleagues seeing the advert for the auction .... on Twitter. Dealer photos are unfortunately all that we have at this time.

The "we" is noteworthy. It seems that until last night, there was just one "advert for the auction of this item" on Twitter and that is this pompous tweet (21st Feb 2021) about what you can find on a Sunday walk in a Tier 4 area from Charles Hanson announcing his upcoming sale [note what he says about the timing of the discovery of this harness-brooch at 58 seconds "found three years ago", which is not what is now the 'official' view in the PAS record, based on what the auction catalogue says]. 

Here's another video of it, Mr Hanson in multi-coloured garb holding it in his sweaty hands, waving the harness-brooch about outdoors, boasting about the price he got for it. 

The comment underneath is interesting: 

"making a memory" (what does that even mean?) rather than making memories by "digging into" and selling off bits ripped from an archaeological site, he's making a lot of money as you can see in this film from the auction where a lot of unmasked people are moving about the room as there are a number of phone bidders. The metal detectorist's speech at the beginning is worthy of note. Also look at the copy of "The Searcher" on the podium during the auction. 

Update 26th Feb 2021

Dr Maslin has replied as following:

Dr Simon Maslin @spmaslin 6 min temu
W odpowiedzi do @PortantIssues i @findsorguk
It was one of the early auction catalogue announcements. I emailed a number of senior colleagues at the BM to alert them and the relevant curators then made contact with the auctioneers. This was before the magazine came out.

So, before Jan 28th 2021. Presumably the emails exist. One of the people informed, apparently, was Dr Julia Farley of the BM (M. Lewis pers. comm. 25th Feb 2021), an enquiry sent yesterday to her has so far gone unanswered.

Update update 26th Feb 2021

Dr Maslin informs me that he notified the BM on 4th Feb, but now admits that "I hadn't seen the printed magazine as we are unable to access our offices but my colleagues had by that point".