A WONDERFUL SALE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 14647, 3 July 1918, Page 6

A WONDERFUL SALE.

£151,000 AT CHRISTIE'S FOR, THE

RED CROSS.

It was a wonderful sale which, after sixteen crowded days at Christie's, has just brought £151,000 to the Red Cross (states a London journal). The amount was 'nearly double that of last year (£82,000), and treble that which was realised at each of the sales m the first and second years of the war (£50,000 and £52,000 respectively). It is an open question even whether it represents the 'final sum, for the anonymous purchaser who secured for £10,000 the great Red Cross diamond is holding it for a month at the disposal of any buyer who will hand it back to the Red Cross Society. Whilst the magnificent yellow atone from the De Beers mines fetched the highest price of the sale, there were many rare gifts that went into four figures, notably the silver gilt porringer presented by Sir Ernest Cassel, which realised £2600, Messrs. Duveen's gift, the pair of Chinese figures of Ho-ho birds, which Lady Wernher bought for 1600 guineas, and the Lavery blank canvas which produced) 1000 guineas. Another outstanding feature of the sale was the pearl necklace, which may be said to be the forerunner of that greater jewel which, is still being collected for the fund, for its eighty-one graduated pearls of fine Orient were contributed by fortyfive donors. The price it realised 1 was £1300. The literary treasures of the salo were as remarkable as any other j and' the interest was maintained to the very last lot m the catalogue.