Antiques
Secret Agent Pete writes about antiques. A Lot.
Skin of man-eating tiger to go under hammer
The skin of a huge tiger that terrorised an Indian village – and may have been responsible for the death of the school teacher’s husband – is the standout lot in the taxidermy section of Moore Allen & Innocent’s sale of … Continue reading
Scouts do their best at snow-hit auction
Their motto is ‘Be Prepared’, and Cirencester auctioneers Moore Allen & Innocent were lucky to have a troop of Boy Scouts on hand when snow bought the country grinding to a halt on Friday (January 18). Sadly these semaphore flag-wielding … Continue reading
Rude and rare biscuit tin goes under the hammer
Auctioneers are used to printing errors turning otherwise mundane items – bank notes, stamps – into collector’s items, but a tin going under the hammer in Cirencester in the new year really takes the biscuit. At first glance all looks … Continue reading
Broken Chinese bowl makes £22,000
A broken Chinese bowl proved it was all it was cracked up to be, and more, when it went under the hammer in Cirencester on Friday. The intricately-decorated oriental bowl, which dated from the 1800s, smashed all expectations, achieving £22,000 … Continue reading
Booze price plan unlikely to affect vintage wine sale (where an empty bottle could fetch £1,200)
New Government proposals to place a minimum price on alcohol will mean the cheapest bottle of wine could soon cost around £4.20. But that’s unlikely to concern buyers and sellers at Moore Allen & Innocent’s annual pre-Christmas auction of vintage … Continue reading
Time for historic clock to return home?
It was less of a ding-dong battle and more of a tick-tock tussle; for years, visitors to Cambridge’s historic market place had a choice of two public clocks from which to tell the time. There was the Guildhall clock, and … Continue reading
Cotswold cow tops sale prices at art auction
Dutch and Italian masters, English satirists and calligraphers from the Far East were all seen off by a cow from the Cotswolds at Moore Allen & Innocent’s selected picture sale last week. Cow by Tree, a naïve study in oil … Continue reading
Soldiers behaving badly at art auction
Drunkenness, brawling, and lewd behaviour – no, not a typical day at the Moore Allen & Innocent saleroom, but the actions of soldiers in an 18th century painting that will go under the hammer at the firm’s auction of works … Continue reading
Skeletons on cinema seats have ’em rolling in the aisles
No bones about it: they look like a couple who’ve waited too long for the opening credits at a cinema renowned for its late-starting films. And the cover of the catalogue from last week’s auction of antiques at Moore Allen … Continue reading