Sow much interest from farmers at antiques auction
BIDDERS at Moore Allen & Innocent’s auction of antiques and collectables on Friday might have been forgiven for thinking they’d walked into the wrong sale. For the top price of the day was achieved by a tractor.
Of course, the Cotswold firm has its roots – if you’ll excuse the pun – in agriculture. The first recorded sale was back in 1845, when Mr Moore conducted an auction of houses and land at the Bathurst Arms, North Cerney.
But the vendor obviously couldn’t wait for the firm’s auction of farm machinery on Wednesday, October 6, so farmers and smallholders trekked to the furniture and fine arts saleroom to bid on a Kubota L3250D 4 wheel drive tractor, with 1,370 recorded hours, on grass tyres. At £4,000 it did well, too.
Back in the antiques world, a 1930s one-armed bandit from a US casino hit the jackpot, with the winning bidder gambling £1,350 against a £300 to £400 estimate.
With its Art Deco front and Native American head feature, the Jennings Gibraltar Casino came complete with its original wooden stand, making it attractive to collectors in a market where many slot machines have lost their legs.
And with four bidders on the phone and interest in the room, it was no surprise to the auctioneer when the bids started to accumulate.
Also of interest to specialist collectors was a Lemania chronograph watch. This contemporary timepiece, from the Swiss watchmakers beloved of military pilots and sportsmen, was part of a collection of three watches that had phone lines buzzing, and the hammer fell at £850.
And staying with collectors’ items, eight early 20th century carved ivory netsukes made £460. For the uninitiated, netsukes are toggles used since the 17th century to keep Japanese robes fastened. Many are ornate, but these were rather plain, so the auctioneers were delighted that specialist collectors and dealers showed so much interest.
One of the most unusual lots of the day was a portrait of the poet W H Auden as a young man, signed by the artist Winifred Lynn Haney. The artist died at the tender age of 21. Auden published about 400 poems, the best known of which, aptly, is Funeral Blues – “Stop the clocks, cut off the telephone…”
And the largest lot of the day, tractors excepted, was a commanding late Victorian library open bookcase in five sections, with two banks of lettered drawers for filing, which made the second highest price of the day at £1,600.
For more information about buying and selling antiques, houses or tractors at auction log on to www.mooreallen.co.uk
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| A 1930s one-armed bandit | A portrait of W H Auden |
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| One-armed bandit (detail) | A late Victorian open library bookcase |