The elderly owner of the flat told visiting valuer Ian Glennie he would be happy to sell his collectables at a general sale for around £200-300. But when the boxes arrived there was a significant addition – a silver frame with floral festoons and mauve guilloché enamel border stamped with the Fabergé mark, BA for the workmaster and 88 for the pre-Revolutionary date.
The estimate of £1000-1500 was left way behind as a series of telephone
bidders slugged it out up to £13,000. The buyer was believed to be London trade.
Also of note in a sale not short on quality, was a 15in (38cm) brass lantern clock by John London of Bristol, a typical late 17th century form with pierced lion and shield panels. As is usual on such early clocks, elements of the movement were thought to have been adapted but, at £4600 bid by an English dealer, a lot of what survived was clearly original.
The high rise of Fabergé...
And now for something completely different...A high-rise flat on the outskirts of Glasgow is not the place one would expect to find works of art by the celebrated firm of Fabergé but that was the origin of the finely crafted photograph frame, right, offered on September 26 by Glasgow auctioneers McTears (15% buyer’s premium).
