A private collector in the UK won this Hampden Watch Company gold-filled pocket watch engraved “‘W.F.Cody PAWNEE CITY NEBRASKA. USA,” for $7,850.
Review by Madelia Hickman Ring
STANSTED MOUNTFITCHET, UK — Those whose collecting interests run a bit beyond the mainstream should look at Sworders’ Out of the Ordinary auctions, a roughly annual event the house started in 2018 that it bills as “an eclectic mix of art, antiques, design and collectibles with a wow factor.”
The most recent Out of the Ordinary auction took place on August 19 with nearly 500 lots. Earning $7,850 and the auction’s highest price was an American gold-filled top-wind open-faced Hampden Watch Company pocket watch engraved “W.F. Cody PAWNEE CITY NEBRASKA, USA.” It was accompanied by a 1910 pawn ticket from London pawnbroker Chas. S. Gilbert and another pawn ticket from 1909. Despite the clear American historical component through its provenance to Wild West showman Buffalo Bill, the watch sold to a private collector in the UK.
Bones are frequent components of the Out of the Ordinary auction and this sale did not disappoint, offering a 3¾-inch-long humerus bone from a dodo, which became extinct in the 1680s. According to the catalog essay for the lot, the specimen was from a group of dodo bones discovered in 1885 during the investigation of the Mare aux Songes swamp, in Mauritius, by schoolmaster George Clark. Provenance for the bone included Errol Fuller, the author of The Dodo: from Extinction to Icon; a copy of the book was included in the lot, which was purchased for $5,307 by a private collector in San Diego, Calif.
Bringing $5,307 and the second-highest price of the day was this 3¾-inch-long dodo humerus bone that found a new home in California.
Taxidermy is another category the sale covers and, with nearly two dozen lots on offer, there was something for everyone. A fully-mounted standing lion was raised to $4,550; provenance noted it was property from Lady Cockburn, deceased. A private collector based in London prevailed over competitors.
A papier mâché Tutankhamun sarcophagus, made in the 1970s as a prop for a Benson & Hedges advertising campaign, will also be staying in London, purchased by a private collector there for $4,550.
A fortune-teller machine, made in a Victorian-style glazed case in the late Twentieth Century by Alan Beresford, was titled “Miss Phoebe sees beyond the veil” and featured an illuminated crystal ball, music, movement of hand and spider. Estimated at £500/800 (approximately $670/1,075), it realized $3,640 and will also be staying in London.
Original photo negatives of the woman at the center of the Profumo affair, taken in the 1960s by Ray Bellisario (1936-2018), sold to a buyer in Denmark, for $3,033. Many of the images, the catalog essay noted, did not appear to have been published and the new Danish buyer now retains the rights to the images.
This photo archive centering on a mid Twentieth Century British scandal will be leaving the UK, headed to Denmark and a new private collection there, for $3,033.
A circa 1970s muslin bondage top, with a label that read “Malcolm McLaren Vivienne Westwood Seditionaries Personal Collection,” was cataloged as having “stains, marks and fraying commensurate with use.” While that might put some prospective bidders off, it garnered enough interest to go from a £400/600 estimate (approximately $535/805) to $1,668 and won by a London based private buyer.
Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house and have been converted into USD based on the exchange rate on the day of the auction. For information, www.sworder.co.uk.
