Fine wines go down well at auction, and war heroes are remembered
A LARGE collection of vintage wines and ports went down well with bidders at a Cotswolds antiques auction last week, with some making £200 a bottle.
Two bottles of Sandeman’s 1934 vintage port each made £200 – double the lower end of the £100 to £150 estimate – while ten lots of six bottles of 1963 Fonseca port made between £420 and £720 per lot.
And the corks really were popping at the Moore Allen & Innocent auction in Cirencester on Friday (November 19) after a single bottle of Cristal Champagne, Louis Roderer 1988, sold for £150.
Only five of the top 25 prices were not achieved by wine sales. An Omega Speedmaster gentleman’s stainless steel watch, with 17 jewels and chronograph movement, achieved £850 – comfortably above its £500 to £800 estimate and, on another day, enough to win it the cherished top spot in the £73,000, 1049-lot auction.
And at the closest auction to Remembrance Day, it was fitting that a memorial to a hero of the First World War should do so well. A bronze death plaque awarded to Leonard Walter Busson, accompanied by a trio of posthumously-awarded medals including Victory, First World War Star, and War medal, together with a black and white photograph of the solider, far exceeded its £60 to £80 estimate to achieve £240.
The next sale at Moore Allen & Innocent will be the Selected Antiques Sale on Friday, December 10, during which a large collection of antique and vintage toys will go under the hammer.
For a full auction catalogue, log on to http://www.mooreallen.co.uk
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| Cases of Chateau Haut-Brion Premier Grand Cru 2007 and Chateau Laville Haut-Brion 2007. |
An Omega Speedmaster gentleman’s stainless steel watch, with 17 jewels and chronograph movement, which sold for £850 | A bronze death plaque and medals |