The 750 lots here yielded a hammer total of €340,000 (£226,670), with prices starting at just €30 (£20) for a silver-gilt salt spoon made in Paris 1819/38. Boscher's varied sales may look modest in monetary terms but they have a "something for everyone" feel that attracts holidaymakers as well as trade and private local clients, and ensure that the spacious Boscher saleroom is always packed.
Eclectic highlights on this occasion ranged from a Louis XV fan, with carved ivory and mother-of-pearl frame and gouache fête galante decoration, at €580 (£385), to a pair of late-19th century French terrestrial and celestial globes signed R. Barbot of Paris (diameter 12in/30cm) on handsome fruitwood stands, at €6200 (£4130); to a 17in (44cm) long Japanese bone and ivory group (c.1920), portraying the Seven Gods of Happiness in their boat at €400 (£265).
As is often the case at Boscher, the sale featured a strong silver section, with 118 lots available and a satisfactory volume take-up of 60 per cent (compared to around 50 per cent for the sale as a whole).
Top price was €5500 (£3665) for a 120-piece, 170oz, Puiforcat cutlery ensemble, but the individual highlight was a 42oz two-handled Louis XVI covered vegetable tureen by Louis Dany (Paris 1787), 8 1/2in (22cm) in diameter, at €4400 (£2930).
A chocolate pot from Mons (c.1776), with a €6000-8000 estimate, failed to sell, but a smaller 8 1/2in (22cm) high, 19oz, chocolate pot by Pierre Valières (Paris 1783/89), fetched €1800 (£1200). A 6in (15.5cm) high baluster-shaped sugar caster, weighing 8oz, described as "probably Irish", made €350 (£235).
Three works by Antoine Guillaumet (1841-1919) headed the pictures. Two coastal views sold solidly - La Baie du Cul de Loup, 15 x 22in (38 x 56cm), for €15,000 (£10,000), and Moralines - Le Village de Maltot, 21in x 2ft 5in (54 x 73cm), for €9500 (£6335) - but his 1888 view of Les Moulins (the windmills), estimated at €12,000-15,000, failed to make it.
