The private vendor had purchased the pistols from a dealer who had bought them at one of those events.
With walnut stocks and grips with chased-steel mounts, the pistols' provenance attracted considerable private and trade interest. The vendor recovered his outlay when they sold back to the trade at £3200.
Flintlock firearms from the 17th and 18th centuries continue to make good money, and from the same consignment came a c.1690/1700 brass-barrelled blunderbuss. Inscribed R Rowland, it sold to a dealer at £2700.
Damage to a Minton majolica monkey teapot kept bidding modest. Had the 8 1/2in (22cm) wide pot been in good condition, it would, reckoned Andrew Hartley specialist Daisy Hartley, have fetched around £2000-2500. As it was, a missing finial and other minor damage, meant it sold on its lower estimate at £1200.
A harder lot to value, but easier to sell, was a late 19th/early 20th century Turkish part canteen of cutlery for 12 settings weighing 99ozs and entered with a matched case.
Continental silver canteens may not be everyone's cup of tea and the £300-400 estimate did not raise too many eyebrows. However, a UK dealer and an overseas telephone bidder set their sights on the canteen and it went to the phone bidder at £1400.
Bidding may have been a little more selective for the furniture, but several notable Georgian pieces did well enough.
These included a mahogany oblong breakfast table at £1500, a handsome George III oak standing corner cupboard at £1800 and a 4ft 7 1/2in (1.41m) 18th century oak dresser base, with three drawers above a potboard, at £2000.
The West Yorkshire firm saw an 80 per cent selling-rate and a £228,000 hammer total from the 1200 lots.
Buyer's premium: 10 per cent
