UNUSUAL AUCTION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26232, 16 August 1946, Page 6

UNUSUAL AUCTION

JAPANESE CONSUL’S EFFECTS

HIGH PRICES RECORDED (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Aug. 15. A large framed rising sun . eclipsed by a union jack hung across it by the auctioneer’s staff, was prominent in the background of an unusual sale held in Wellington to-day by order of the War Assets Realisation Board. The sale was of furnishings and general effects that formerly belonged to the Japanese consul-general residing in Wellington, and it attracted a great crowd. Two rising suns went early, one for £2 and the other for 10s. “Take it home and use it as a dartboard," advised the auctioneer as a woman purchaser of one of the emblems took delivery. Prices throughout were firm and the sale went on in an atmosphere of good humour, mainly directed at the departed Japanese, until two magnificent canteens of cutlery, not of Japanese make, were put One purchaser took both canteens for £2BO. Two large blue and white vases brought £25 each while one Cloisonne vase brought £46 and another £4l. A 22-carat gold dinner service of 136 pieces excluding tea and coffee cups and saucers was one of the features of the sale. It went for 12s 6d a piece, one buyer taking the lot. The cups and saucers realised 18s a set.