With 644 lots on offer and only about 40 unsold – bringing a total of £55,000 – the auctioneers saw the result as vindicating their policy of only taking private consignments. The Brighton trade secured about half of the collection with the London trade purchasing some of the better quality entries and private buyers taking home eight or nine lots.
The collection was a mixed bag with some examples in better condition than others, and the top prices were reserved for the best quality carved wood netsuke rather than the ivory.
A painted wooden netsuke in the form of a dragon head on a scroll brought the biggest money when it sold at £640. Another wooden example much in demand took the form of muscular man squeezing into a box which fetched £520.
The most notable furniture entry, as expected, was a George III bachelor’s chest. Mahogany rather than the more coveted walnut and with a damaged lock, it nevertheless took £2900 from a London dealer.
Another London dealer also secured a 19th century mahogany tallboy whose main attraction was its well carved pagoda cornices. It sold at £1800.
Raymond P. Inman, Brighton, May 14
Buyer’s premium: 15 per cent
London-Brighton battles boost netsuke bids
UK: AN 80-lot collection of Japanese netsuke, inro and okimono from the deceased estate of a Lewes-based collector lifted the proceedings in Raymond P. Inman’s Sussex sale.
