“What Offer?”

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 83, 29 June 1927, Page 15

“What Offer?”

| FOUNDLING FURNITURE j OF MIGRATORY HOUSEHOLDERS IS SOLD AT AUCTION I

FOLK ARE FORGETFUL TT is surprising what people will forget. Ninety-three articles of furniture—could they have been really forgotten? Or could a rolltop desk have slipped its owner’s memory? Yet these and a thousand lots were under the hammer to-day on behalf of the New Zealand Express Company, in whose store-rooms they have been forgotten or abandoned in the migratory flights of householders. And the folk who strolled around inspecting the stuff with critical appraisal are easily distinguished as traders in the goods and chattels which home-makers will scratch together. As the time for the sale drew near the box-seats are captured by women. Unenthusiastic looking they are until the jollying repartee of the auctioneer has keyed them up. "Well here we have, ladies and gentlemen, everything from a needle to a dead sailor’s love letters. Yes, madame, you knew the sailor, did you? Very well; I won’t tell.” The lots went off to bring bright bid-ding-cutlery—from a broken partnership perhaps, Knox College crockery—perhaps some theological burglar’s haul a tin .of watches, trinkets and soldiers’ badges amid the knick-knack-ers from many an old-fashioned mantepiece.

Flotsam and jetsam of many a mov-ing-day, they find their way back into other homes to gather more associations and new usefulness.