A LUCKY BARGAIN.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXX, Issue 3537, 30 May 1912, Page 2

A LUCKY BARGAIN.

After the battle of Vit-toria, in which Wellington won a complete victory over the French (1813). the British nearly captured Joseph Bonaparte, the sham King of Spain. They actually came up with him in his carriage, but he managed to take to horse and ride off. But he left behind him all the pictures and objects of art which had been stolen from the churches and palaces in Spain. This proved rare spoil for the soldiers. Sir George Collier found one soldier in the act of picking out with the point of his bayonet the neamels of a Louis XP. gold snuff-box adorned with enamelled panels representing scenes from the novel of “Gil Bias.” Three of these panels had already been extracted and could not be found; but Sir George induced the man to part with the box in exchange for as many guineas as would cover the lid. It was not a bad bargain, for when the snuffbox was sold by auction in London in 1904 it fetched no less than 1850 guineas—probably something like 130 times as much as Thomas Atkins received for it.