Network Auctions’ latest sale results (10th December) have prompted auctioneer Richard Worrall to claim 3 as the lucky number, following another stellar performance of the lot number with buyers.
Worrall said, ‘On the first auction of the year we sold lot 3 for £157,000 off a guide price of £5,000+. Now, on the last auction of the year, we sold lot 3 for £163,500 off a guide price of £20-25,000.’
Superstition is something Richard takes seriously and he always wears his lucky pants and tie on auction day.
‘I have a tartan tie I always wear on auction day as I have the title of Lord of Choal Ghleann. It’s not hereditary, but I own a square metre of land in Scotland! The pants are my favourite black Penguin pair which have always been lucky since I wore them on the night Chelsea won the Champions League in 2012.’
Numbers and their meanings have long held to have importance over people’s lives, so much so that in China, buildings often omit the fourth floor, because the pronunciation of the word is similar to that of the Chinese word for death.
When it comes to the number 3, the signs look auspicious. The Pythagoreans believed the number 3 to be the first real number and the number of harmony, while in numerology, the number 3 is all about abundance and happy communications.
In Buddhist culture, the number 3 represents Buddha, Dharma and Bonze, so people toll the bell three times to worship Buddha and pray for the removal of calamities with 3 sticks of incense.
In Korea, 3 is considered to be the luckiest number because the number 3 symbolises control over ground and heaven, with 1 representing the sky and 2 representing the earth, adding them together produces 3.
In Chinese, the number 3, pronounced san, is considered lucky due to its similarity in sound to the word that means birth. Plus, it represents the three stages in the life of humans – birth, marriage, death, which gives the number extra significance.
In Italy, the number 3 is associated with balance and strength, which is represented by a triangle.
Many people also believe in the adage ‘all good things come in threes’, and the rule of three is encapsulated in the Latin phrase ‘omne trium perfectum’: everything that comes in threes is perfect, or, every set of three is complete.
Of course, for every cultural belief in luck, there is the reverse opinion. In Japan and Vietnam, people avoid taking photos with only 3 people because of an old superstition that death will come to whoever is in the middle of the photo!
Will lucky lot 3 hold? Only the next Network Auction in February 2021 will tell!
Network Auctions next online sale will be held 11 February 2021. For more information, www.networkauctions.co.uk
