FAMOUS CHRISTIES’

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 3 January 1931, Page 10

FAMOUS CHRISTIES’

GENTLEMANLY QUIET HOW SALES ARE CONDUCTED STATELY DECORUM Even murders can be conducted in a gentlemanly manner, as for example, in duels, so that- I suppose I should not have been so very much surprised when I visited the famous Christies to discovert that an auction sale is not. necessarily an “all-in go,” says a writer m the “Daily Pictorial.” By comparison with the stately decorum of a sale at Christies’ a wedding ceremony is a bachelor’s farewell party and the Old Gentlemen of Lord’s Cricket Ground a howling mob. _ , , They were selling the late Earl ot Balfour’s silver-plate . when I entered the small domed auction room in King street St. James. At least I presumed they were selling, for the handsome ac-tor-like auctioneer was swinging his head from side to side like a pendulum and with every swing he named a higher price in a soft, musical voice. Somebody apparently was Bidding, but. the auctioneer seemed to be the only person in the room who knew anytnm-r about it. Not a sound came from the crowd standing around the room or from the sleek gentlemen, many Jewish, sitting at the red baize-covered tables underneath the rostrum. ... One could eventually discover the bidders by watching the direction of the auctioneer’s glance. At the end o: eat i swing he would alternately glare at- a young man sitting at the table an " inquiringly at a big man standing' mi* group at the right of the rostrum, lherc was no malice in the glare'givm to ...o voungster; it was inevitable ,-h fact that the auctioneer started by Hit ing his evebrows so high to the big man at he could not raise them any higher; consequently, he had to depress them heavily at the other end of his pendulum swing. TEMPTED TO BID J” m if te vou are of a friendly disposition there °s something teariuUy in this nodams »'W »' hun £f%,£, 6 auctioneer is one of those ■ e, S™ able fellows whom you feel you woum 1n i. now a nd you feel certain that if lie looks across at v ou in this maffixing way it will he impossible to resist nodding pleasantly at him. , . . Just for an dustant there was a faint dtir of excitement when a loth c . dish ot silver gilt »™nsly etgn md with the arms of a noble fami shown round. Somebody hid « janil for it; at least the auctioned said I B °They cleared five thousands, and were I ivoil on the wav to the sixth, but g OP at £SBOO. ' The auctioneer looked griSd. would ho have dreamt Ot Jjenuy'ius'Ss that ttev mi ß ht have done better. HUNDREDS IN BOUNDS Then a queer, uglv. battered little urn of Charles ll.’s reign was put PPIn the same way the auctioneer s head swung through the hundreds until £3OO was reached, and no doubt mewhe in the room two people were nodding nwavTiundreds lust as quickly, towards the end of the bidding I caught one man who proved later to be the successful buyer in the act of nodding. And when later he walked round the room to elm with someone, I. saw ope thrilUng i dication of the intensity of this suem S His hands were trembling as if he had coma through some nerve tmde'nße?aoesfthe mere fact of ,an article befi oSred for sale, at Chr.st.es' puts the hall-mark of genuineness and wort upon it, the auctioneer made not the ior slf.rtl.ey could take them or leavo times the swiftness of the bidding At tmes uie . Melbourne wool Bafe” 1 But in every other wav the two functions were as different as an alh talkinc singing, dancm- and lanting musicajMae^ndajn^o^.

Wonderful surf girls with beautiful figures secured by taking Youth-O-rorm. 6-/6 Absolutely harmless.-Nees, Chemists, Hardy street.