Clarks’ demolished all their previous sales records on Monday with a fine sale in front of a packed saleroom & even achieved a world record.
With bids from every corner of the globe, the sale yielded several big surprises. A rare George VI 1937 Chancellor of the Exchequer of Australia coin set made £14500 after lengthy phone bid battle, beating the previous world best on like for like by £1500 with another coin set, a George VI Royal Mint Pretoria going to the same buyer at £2650. Throughout the sale top prices were achieved for coins with £500 for a rarer eight over seven gold sovereign & £480 for a William IV. A fine grade 1849 silver two shillings secured an outstanding price of £350 while a 1714 gold Guinea of VF/F grade made £440.
The collectables had strong results throughout with a good French Napoleonic prisoner of war bone model ship in its original straw work case making an impressive £6200 with a US phone bidder outbidding internet & commission interest. A Chinese silver comport sold to online bidders at £2700 whilst a c.1900 mounted half hull boat model with mirrored back surprised some at £880. A pewter “grotesque” style bird inkwell probably by Kayserzinn flew at £240 despite faults & a British Naval officers sword saw online bidders cut down local interest at £350.
Furniture was well received with an 18thC. walnut bureau making interest at £320 & ten attractive Edwardian chairs £300. Two contrasting chests of drawers, a miniature Wellington & a 19thC. five drawer chest each made £130. Two Chinese pieces of furniture were well received at £370 & £330 respectively but it was the Portuguese furniture that saw most interest. An 18thC. rosewood Portuguese chest of drawers on a barley twist stand received bids of £1400 while an Indo Portuguese chest made £840. Even projects didn’t deter bidders with a Portuguese library table that required a lot of work making £640.
The motorcycles proved irresistible for buyers. A Triumph motorcycle project took £3000 while another smaller Triumph was in at £1400 & a BSA took £1300 at the hammer. Other items of engineering interest caught the eye of bidders with a Stanley plane carving out bids of £150 & an early 20thC. Stuart cast iron mounted stationary steam engine obtaining online interest a £330. Three c.1910 cast iron German Gebrüder Bing live steam accessories were delightfully engineered models & they made £540 at the hammer.
Jewellery has a strong following at the Liskeard saleroom but no-one could have expected a 3ct diamond ring was securing an incredible £39000 after a private room buyer ran down a large commission bid! Auctioneer Paul Clark said “That was unreal. The guide price was plenty ripe enough at £15-20k so to get two bidders offer up so much more was absolutely remarkable although the story behind why the winning bidder weighed in so much was rather uplifting”. Other jewellery made the grade with a gents Rolex datejust selling for £2200 & a ladies version finding a new home for £1650. A small Victorian pearl necklace made £1000 while a gents stainless steel Omega watch made £960. Entries are sought for our fine Winter programme including New Years Day.
