Measuring 73/4in (19cm), it outstripped its modest estimate of £120-180 to sell to the trade at £1350. According to the auctioneers the carving - that stood on an ebonised and velvet base and was covered with a glass dome - was believed to have been created by a WWII prisoner although a search on the internet finds such things far from unique. A well-known London dealer has one in stock catalogued as Indian c.1940 (alongside the Royal Enfield, the Raleigh Roadster was one of only two major styles of bicycle made in India at the time) but very similar objects are available from a company called Eastern Designs who sell contemporary crafts. What cannot be called into doubt is the sheer quality of these carved bicycles - every detail from the dynamo, lights, brakes and seat springs, has been painstakingly recreated in miniature.
Also subject to strong competition at this Lincolnshire sale was a large oak (or possibly chestnut) X-frame trestle table that was essentially 17th century but with substantial later alterations. By repute the table had formed part of the furnishings of the long-demolished Hartholme Hall, Lincoln but was consigned for sale by the St John Ambulance after almost a decade in storage. Its superb top was the selling point: a cleated slap of two pieces of timber from the bowl of a tree measuring 3in (7.5cm) thick and 10ft 10in long by 3ft 7in wide (3.30 x 1.09m).
Promising to restore well, it went to a Newark dealer at £7200 (estimate £1000-1500).
