Cordy’s doesn’t always provide pre-sale estimates but a Dutch silver chamber or taper stick clearly went way beyond hopes when it fetched a cool $NZ12,937.50 ($A10,600) including premium.
The stick, (Lot 483), was not illustrated in the catalogue or online. It was described as late 18th century, featuring a plain cylindrical nozzle and ribbed bands on a turned short column, with plain circular drip tray bowl base, hallmarked S Gravenhage and others, height 10cm, diameter 11.5cm.
It seems having the catalogue listed on international websites including www.AntiquesReporter.com.au brought significant foreign interest, with two phone bidders from the Netherlands, and one from the United States chasing the candlestick.
“It was the sleeper of the sale – but it didn’t sleep for too long,” says Cordy’s Andrew Grigg.
Elsewhere in this large mixed sale a brace of interesting guns apparently failed to fire on all barrels. An English James Purdey shotgun, a 16-bore double barrel percussion gun in original case dating from 1838, brought $4050 including premium, comfortably above the pre-sale estimate. But other shotguns by Charles Osborne, Charles Lancaster and W.W. Greener were unsold – though negotiations were continuing after the auction.
Andrew Grigg says the relatively subdued interest in the guns contrasted with that for a large offering at the firm’s June 22 sale which was 100 per cent sold. Among the lots a John Dickson gun brought over $NZ14,000 and a Markel fetched $NZ6266.