Extraordinary Rediscovery

When I was collecting the new baby two-seater a few days ago I needed something to carry all the documentation and paraphernalia. I spotted an old brief-case atop a wardrobe, so hauled that down for the requisite purpose.

I was removing the papers from it yesterday and a small, oblong box - you know the kind that rings and studs are kept in - was tucked away in a corner. I instantly realized that I had made a miraculous discovery: I'd found my long-lost cuff-links.

Five years ago we had an intruder alarm installed and the two technicians had the run of the house for half a day. About a week after they'd left, I was looking for a pair of cuff-links and couldn't find them. I turned the house upside down - or so I thought - in vain. I knew that these were my favourite and best cuff-links; they were my late father's and of sentimental value too.

I came to the alarming conclusion - wrongly, it it has transpired - that the box had been stolen by one of the technicians. Notice the gratuitous pun there? Naturally I did nothing at the time because I could prove nothing; I simply believed that one of the technicians had pocketed my property.

Can you imagine how I felt, after five years, when I became re-united with them? The ones on the left are hall-marked "9 .375 with an anchor, a letter Y, and the Maker's Mark "JC" - G H Johnstone & Company of Northampton Street and Hatton Garden, London. I think the letter Y indicates a date of 1923.