New in the form of an improved Website with pictures of more than 100 of the 780 varied lots – 84 per cent of which sold – and old in the form of a Stanley Mahogany Fuller Calculator.
This latter was an Edwardian piece, looking rather like a rolling pin resting on a box and functioning like a cylindrical slide rule. Roll it round, or turn a handle, and it offered trigonometry functions and logarithms as well as basic arithmetic.
Hard to estimate, it carried (unprinted) hopes of £30-50 but aroused interest from as far away as America and finally sold privately at £480.
The sale was also notable for a couple of pieces of Arts and Crafts furniture, a corner chair with wicker seat, illustrated here, which took a treble-estimate £510 from a US bidder, and a low bureau bookcase, 4ft 3in high by 3ft 1in wide (1.31m x 96cm) with a shelved top above a fall front with fitted interior and a long drawer and two panelled doors below. This latter, although not stamped Liberty, was reckoned to be a Liberty piece and took a triple-estimate £1220 from the trade.
More familiar staples took the top within-estimate prices. An early 19th century flame mahogany linen press with trays and drawers took £2300 from a dealer, a 6ft 1in (1.85m) George III mahogany chest-on-chest with brushing slide went to the local trade at £2100, and a George III D-end card table in mahogany with inlaid banding and stringing took £1700 from a private buyer.
P.F. Windibank, Dorking, February 3
Buyer’s premium: 10 per cent
Scoring a technical knockout in Surrey
UK: NEW and old technology were both part of a successful Saturday event for the Surrey auctioneers.
