PATRIOTIC AUCTION

Evening Star, Issue 24296, 10 September 1942, Page 4

PATRIOTIC AUCTION

SPIRITED PUBLIC RESPONSE Despite the downpour which immediately preceded the sale, a large crowd attended the mayoress’s silver thimble auction which commenced this morning at Marshall Chambers. The sale is to continue aH day and again to-morrow. Several hundred articles were on view, representative of Otago’s response to the mayoress’s appeal* The sum received from the auction is to be deveted to general patriotic purposes. “ Silver thimble ” was scarcely the correct term to apply to the collection, for although there in considerable numbers, these useful artie'es formed but a minor portion of the large and valuable collection of gold, silver, and jewellery. Mr J. Geerin, of Messrs Park, Reynolds Ltd., was the honorary auctioneer, and before the sale commenced he emphasised that there were two phases attached to the sale. One was that the public were buying articles of worth which had first been examined and classed by experts; the other was that by buying the public were contributing money to help New Zealand’s soldiers. There were, he said, buyers who bad come from districts outside of Dunedin —one in particular had journeyed from as far away as Christchurch. Of the workers and attendants assisting in the sale, all had gladly given their services free, one willing helper was a boy from King’s High School, who was just now on' holiday. Some buyers had been prudent and had deposited with him blank cheques to bo filled in for the amounts of their purchases. The sale was proceeding briskly towards noon, indicating that the many buyers were fully appreciative of the worthy object behind the effort. There were keen collectors present, too, and it was evident that much truth lay behind the auctioneer’s Statement, that many of the articles must have been given with something of a heartbreak, for they bore evidence of having been in families for many, years, and were genuine antiques.