KING’S SUITS FOR SALE

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 520, 24 November 1928, Page 14

KING’S SUITS FOR SALE

EMPEROR’S WARDROBE TO BE DISPOSED OF An interesting sale was announced in Vienna recently of several pieces of uniform belonging to the lata Kaiser Franz Joseph, and attested by an old servant of the Royal household as having been worn by his Majesty (says the London “Observer”). The “dorotheum,” or "tante,” as it is familiarly called by the Viennese, is arranging the sale, as it has done that of precious heirlooms from royal and noble houses since its foundation. In the past this institution, run conjointly by State and municipality, has been a happy hunting ground for collectors of art treasures and curios, and even to-day, when postwar conditions have impoverished everyone, bargains may be picked up by the connoisseur from the sales of wealthy tradesmen’s houses and effects. The “reserve price” put on the imperial uniforms is 30 schillings (not finite £1), and it is quite conceivable that even this low figure will not be reached, for small value is placed on such relics by the general Viennese public to-day. In contrast to Napoleon’s hat. which was sold in Paris some timp ago for 4,000 francs, a lock of Schubert’s hair is still without a buyer in the dorotheum, and that despite the prominence given to Schubert in this year’s celebrations.