Auctioneers and vendors are quickly discovering that Europe’s country houses, furnished with the routine period objects that no longer generate great excitement, can occasionally yield valuable souvenirs of a colonial past. At Anderson & Garland (20% buyer’s premium) of Westerhope, near Newcastle on April 12 this group of Aboriginal items left sold at £37,000 after a battle between two online bidders.
The quartet of items, all thought to be 19th century, came from a small house clearance in Gosforth. Fred Wyrley- Birch, who heads the collectors’ department at A&G, had hoped the family would be able to shed some light on their provenance but he said this was now “lost in the mists of time”.