TEA AT £15 A LB

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 47, 25 February 1937, Page 7

TEA AT £15 A LB

LORD MAYOR'S AUCTION

The Lord Mayor of London sold 2001b of tea by auction recently and obtained an average price of £15 a ;lb. It was the first sale to be held at the Auditorium, Plantation . House, which the Lord Mayor declared: open as the new tea auction room of .the trade, in succession to the auction ; rcom which has stood in Mincing Lane for the past 120 years (said "The Times", of January SO). The proceeds of the first sale, amounting to £2980, will be 'devoted to the Tea Trade of London Benevolent Society. ',' The opening of the Auditorium attracted a distinguished gathering to Plantation House, and among them were representatives of almost every firm which buys tea in large quantities. The tea —described variously in the literature of the occasion as "a small parcel of very choice quality Gold .Tip Indian Tea,". "200 pounds weight of Superlatively Choice South Indian Nilgiri Tea." arid "200 pounds of Superlatively Choice Gold Tip Flowery Broken Orange Pekoe of incalculable value"—was sold in thirty-two lots. The first fourteen lots consisted each of "one crate containing three English hand-made glass.bowls, with stem and stoppered top, each containing one pound net,- and each bowl packed in a Venesta box"; the remaining lots, not specified in the catalogue, each contained nine pounds of tea without the stem and stoppered bowls of boxes.

The Lord Mayor, calling for an initial bid, was offered £20 for the first lot. The bidding quickly rose to £50, and later, at £100, it was advanced to 100 guineas. Finally, the lot was sold at £110 to Mr. Fred Still. The second lot was sold for £100, the third and fourth for- £90 each, the fifth and sixth for £75 each, and the. remaining eight in the first four= teen lots for £80 each. The .other eighteen lots not in the catalogue were sold for £100 each, almost automatically. At the close of'his task'the-Lord Mayor was given a'cup. of tea poured from a tea-pot which is. reputed to'be the largest in the world and from which enough tea can-be brewed for 200 cups of ordinary 'size. ' 'The pot is 300 years old and is said' to 'be one of the finest specimens- of Staffordshire hand T painted china in existence. It was presented to Mr. J. J. Bunting by the Ministry of Food for his service at that Ministry during the war. The tea which was offered for" sale was presented for the occasion by Mr. Bunting. ■■' ' Lord S.elsdon, chairman/ of the board of directors of' Plantation House, presided at the opening ceremony and, speaking of this new home of the "plantation trades." .^suggested that it might, be.regarded as a step in the Mincing: Lane ."slum clearance scheme." They wanted it, he added, to be a worthy Empire centre for the Empire's outposts.