Edwardian silver patent peg selector – £1700 at Holts.
Back in 1898 Albert Barker of New Bond Street, London, registered this Expanding Fan Patent ‘Pathfinder’ which opens like a lady’s purse to display eight numbered tabs from which the shooters would be invited to pick.
This was just one of many unfolding novelties patented by Barker, who specialised in space-saving travel furniture, registering 12 patents from 1894-1918. His patent for ‘expanding fan like devices’ includes drawings of an umbrella stand, a cigar case and what looks to be the pathfinder ‘as applied to boxes for drawing lots for “places” in game shooting’.
Invention met tradition at Holts in December when this Edwardian silver patent peg selector sold for £1700.
