CHURCHILL AUCTION

Evening Star, Issue 24332, 22 October 1942, Page 4

CHURCHILL AUCTION

GOOD VALUES REALISED TO-DAY

Some excellent prices were obtained this morning when the Churchill auction was continued'in the Otago Art Society’s rooms in Dowling street. There was again a fair attendance of buyers. Pictures, sketches, prints, antiques (many of which possess a genuine historical significance), and objects of racial and tribal interest were the principal articles placed under the hammer, and in several instances competition was keen. Generally speaking, it could be said that values were realised, although there were one or two surprising responses, probably because some objects had only a restricted collector value. Many or this mornings values were set by, the Otago Museum, keen to obtain antiques and pieces with native or racial appeal, while the University Library also set values for a number of the pictures. Up to 1 o’clock to-day approximately £l7O had been realised, and yesterday’s total was in the vicinity of £230, so that up to the present the Otago Provincial Patriotic Council’s funds will have benefited to the extent of £4OO. The sale was to be completed this afternoon. '

Good values were obtained for the pictures put up. Baxter’s ‘ Vive I’Erapereur,’ a study of Napoleon 111., brought six and a-balf guineas; six engravings of Continental family life about'l76o £4 4s; eteliing by Teniers, £2 2s; an original Whistler, £7 17s Cd ; original etching by Piranesi (1761), 31s 6d. A caricature in water colour by G. P. Nerli made £6 6s, and two local subjects, a water colour of Davidsons Mill, Woodhaugb, 1889, by David Hutton : and a pencil drawing of the Waitati Valley by G.' O’Brien sold well, the final bids being £4 4s and £6 6s respectively. For a Maori long-handled tomahawk the Otago Museum paid £ls. The Museum also fixed values for many similar objects. An Austral Island ceremonial paddle made £4; a Japanese bronze incense burner £3; Maori axe found in the Wyndham Ranges over 40 years ago £1; a Sheffield plate tea urn, at least 130 years old, £ls; vase from Ur of the Chaldees, dated 3,100 8.e., £2 2s; a Venetian glass tea sea brought ,£3 a piece; a Belgian silver bowl, 100 years old, £8 8s; French eighteenth century vase, £2 15s; antique majolica plate, £2. A number of postage stamps of rare interest brought mainly under catalogue values. The best bid was for a “Stevenson” set of Western Samoan stamps, valued at 455, which sold at 555.

Yesterday afternoon the sale of books was continued, the University Library, Hocken Library, and the Dunedin and Invercargill Public Libraries setting values. The top price for the day was £25 paid by the University Library for a collection' of 96 letters and autographs of eminent Victorians and others, including the Queen. The sale is being conducted by Messrs Park, Reynolds Ltd. in an honorary capacity.