One of the stars at a recent Perry and Phillips auction was undoubtedly a 1950s pocket watch featuring the famous Guinness toucan. Originally sold for just five shillings, and known as the 'five bob watch', this item attracted a tremendous amount of attention and was auctioned for a cool £320!

The watch featured the Guinness toucan as an automaton within the watch face and it proved to be of particular interest to buyers, so much so that we're still getting calls now from people keen to buy a similar watch if one comes in for sale.

All of which prompted me to take a look at Guinness collectables and make them the focus of this month's column.

There are a lot of items around appertaining to various brewers and pub chains, not all of them collectable and not all of them original. The Guinness items, however, do prove exceptionally popular. There's even a Guinness Collectors Club which has its own website (members only) that details Guinness collectables ranging from the predictable ashtrays and beer mats to the less predictable calendars, Corgi toys, playing cards, ties and posters. Oh, and thimbles - we've just had a set of Guinness thimbles brought in for auction!

The more collectable an item is, the more you can expect to pay at auction or in an antiques centre - and so it was with the toucan pocket watch.

As is often the case when something becomes so very popular, there are apparently a number of fake 'Guinness' items around. I read about a rare piece of Carltonware, a wall plaque featuring the toucan, that was indeed a find - very few existed in good condition. Then all of a sudden, there were loads about...but they weren't all quite what they appeared to be!

As with all antiques and collectables, if you're serious about collecting you need to know exactly what to look for. With the Carltonware Guinness items, colour can prove all-important. On the Guinness plaque, for example, the toucan's feet will be green and black; the harp and the word 'Guinness' printed in gold underneath the glaze. The bird's chest colours will be white, yellow then orange, as will the lower part of the beak. The upper beak should be yellow, the eye a black pupil with red iris; the base of the tail will feature a dash of red.

All complicated stuff, but you need to know what you're buying! Happy antiques hunting...

The next Perry and Phillips auction of antiques and collectables takes place at the Mill Street saleroom on Tuesday December 6. Auction valuation mornings are held at the saleroom every Wednesday morning from 10am until 2pm (free valuations are not generally available at any other time).