Once again, novelty pieces provided the main talking point – an 1895 vesta case by Samuel Jacob in the form of a golf club, complete with hinged stamp compartments and twist-off cover the shaft to hold sealing wax. Inscribed to a victorious club golfer, the case showed the premium on all things connected with the sport when it led the day at £2350 against an apparently bullish £500-800 estimate.
Best of the more standard lots were a Mappin & Webb Sheffield 1897 four-piece tea and coffee set decorated with prick dots and wrigglework at a double-estimate £2050, and a composite 97-piece canteen of Georgian and later King’s Pattern cutlery, 237oz in all, which went just over hopes at £2000.
Phillips, Knowle, May 30
Buyer’s premium: 15 per cent.
Silver vesta case goes above par
UK: PRICES for standard silver remain subdued but the 330 lots of plate and silver offered here did include nine four-figure bids and enjoyed an 86 per cent take-up and a total of £96,600.
