A TWENTY-FOUR YEARS' AUCTION.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 16, 16 July 1910, Page 9

A TWENTY-FOUR YEARS' AUCTION.

(From .One Special Cotresooiulent.> V - •;— -HDONDON, June 3. An auction sale tdat iaa already lasted fonr and twenty years .and is still unfinished, is- surely a thing , of wonder. Such an auction is being- continued at Messrs. Sotheby's -famous tboaigh.. unpretentious sale rooms ' near Waterloo Bridge,, next -week. -■■•.■•- JQi-fljiJfijfl Sit'iS^JSL Bnflilfl|)l|S ffi 1-kiJiips, who -died Ml y-aai'i agfl, *L^v<>Ltltl Tile <ife-posa,l of lals -v&Jst; -wliicli zt.~b. GHel-teiiliajai froia. ceJQajr- -a/fctlc.., '"begun in T.SSG. Since "tlien.: sales, i;ota.lling nearly 16,000 lots ia?e Deeu held, the proceeds 'being nearly £50,000, whilst :-priva,te sales ha-ve -procLueetL thousands more.- — .... .~... "Sir Thomas describes himself as a and tie- description fitted ihinr ~"to a T:"" He travelled: thousands upon thousands of-miles--in-search, of curions manuscripts; indeed, -he Transacted Europe for them. - - ;-:"■ Anything written on vellum was to him a treasure to foe'bought at-any price. Account books of King 3 and Queens, the records of • long-forgotten ■ ■monasteries, ancient treaties between- -nations, the autograph poems of .14iih century bards, were all eagerly by-Sir CThomas and added to nis -unmatched. collection. One oLthe lots, to;lba:soldin .<S»a present sale is. an.original jbonaehold account book' of Edward H., in. -w-hich entries relating to the King's gift, of silver to "a hermit abiding near Dover,",and the purchase of "two State cnariot horses at thirty .shillings each." ... •- the treasures have now •returned to countries-whence he gaiihered them, ■ several Continental Governments having 'boughifc manuscripts irelating to their countries. It da reckoned that the sales will not *be~ for_ isjiotlier^2o~yea.Ts.