In its favour it was initialled AHC. The estimate of $500 – 700 was certainly “enticing” or “cautious” – reflecting current economic circumstance.
However it sold for $4,148 (including buyer’s premium). Was there a precedent for this price, and could this have been predicted?
Sotheby’s Melbourne in 2008 sold a dessert spoon together with a rare sauce ladle for $6,600. However the lion’s share of that price would have been the very much rarer sauce ladle with the significant attraction of its being fiddle and shell pattern.
The shell factor also accounts for a very healthy (but not “intergalactic”) $1,265 paid for a teaspoon at John Williams Auctions in Sydney in 2009. Bonham’s in Sydney in November 2011 sold a pair of fiddle pattern table spoons with identified initials for $6,000.
The “Vizard sale” (as reported on earlier) in April sold a rare Dick Soup ladle for $6,750.
In the same sale a part Dick fiddle pattern flatware service of 24 pieces was not sold – estimate $40 to $60,000 (excluding buyer’s premium).
Whilst there may be many collectors prepared to pay low/mid four figures to obtain a single representative example of Dick flatware, perhaps, there are fewer prepared to commit to around $50,000 for an “embarrassment de richesse” for their collection.
So where does that leave our $4,148 dessert spoon? Undoubtedly it pushed the barriers of expectation very considerably, but perhaps it only goes to underline the continued support and growing strength of the market for early Australian silver – as suggested in the earlier review of the “Vizard” sale.