BANKRUPTCY SALE IN WELLINGTON

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27192, 9 November 1953, Page 7

BANKRUPTCY SALE IN WELLINGTON

BIG CROWD ATTENDS AUCTION JEWELLERY SEI,LS AT • BARGAIN PRICES (New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, November 7. Wellington had bne of its best bargain auctions of paintings for many years when between 200 ,and 390 persons into a city auctioneer’s yesterday afternoon for the sale of oils and water colours in the bankrupt estate of a former bank officer.

In the morning expensive jewellery sold at * bargain prices, and in the evening 124 separate lots of valuable and sometimes rare stamps sold on an average at half their catalogued value. The highest price paid at the jewellery sale was £350 for a pair of diamond drop earrings, reputed to have been security for a £5OO loan. There were many other bargains in jewellery. and some gold articles sold for less than the value of the metal in them.

A feature of the morning auction was a group of greenstone items of Maori origin. A Tangwai greenstone tiki almost four inches high sold for £l5. and another rare tiki went for £22. A slab of greenstone was sold for £9, and a bone mere for £B.

In the afternoon • oil paintings, water colours, and prints by New Zealand, overseas, and unknown artists were sold. A set of .13 prints of London sold for 55gns, ancF a set of English prints, “The Twelve Calendar Months,” brought 41gns.. Several oil paintings sold for 30gns to 40gns, and water colours by New Zealand artists sold for between sgns and 45gns. A contemporary portrait of George II fetched 24gns, and a coastal scene by Nugent Welch went for 12gns. Altogether there were 200 pictures to be sold, and those that remained yesterday will be auctioned on Monday. Sale of Stamps Last night more than 100 persons attended the auctioning of the large stamp collection from the estate. College boys were among the philatelists who biti for the stamps, which sold at bargain prices throughout the evening. A superb block of 30' 1932 New Zealand health stamps in jnint condition, the famous Blue Boy issue, were Sold for £27, or 18s each, to a Napier buyer. Their catalogue value was 35s each.

A sheet of 48 1935 New Zealand health stamps in mint condition sold for £4 ss. Their catalogue value was £44 Bs. Two albums of various New Zealand health stamps fetched £lB and £9.

On Monday a valuable collection of books from the same estate will be auctioned. They include a Hebrew Bible printed in 1673, and one of the earliest books'ever written about New Zealand—an Volume by Captain Richard A. Cruise.