Tod price for violin

Press, 11 March 1983, Page 6

Tod price for violin

A nineteenth-century French violin, listed as a collector’s instrument, fetched the highest price of $BOOO at an auction of antique goods in Christchurch last evening. The 1841 violin went to an absentee bidder, a New Zealander now living in Paris. No further bid was made. Two violin bows were withdrawn from sale. About 700 people attended the auction in the Arts Centre, conducted by Mr Peter Webb, of the Aucklandbased fine arts auctioneers, Peter Webb Galleries, Ltd. Almost 600 items were offered. Mr Webb said that the most spirited bidding had

been for antique pistols and jewellery. Bidding for furniture had not been so good, a trend he had also noticed at North Island auctions recently. The highest price for a piece of furniture was $2OOO for a mid-nineteenth century Florentine cabinet decorated with inlaid floral and musical motifs. A pair of Queen Anne flintlock pistols with embossed silver decorated leopard's head butt caps, and screw-off cannon barrels, dated 1700, went for $3700. A double-barrelled flintlock pistol with an inlaid silver wire-work grip, and raised silver pattern butt

cap, about 1750, sold for $2500.

A large oval sapphire set in a ring, and surrounded by 24 diamonds, sold for

Rugs sold at various prices, including $lOOO for an antique rug, dated 1900, and measuring 200 cm by 155 cm.