Lassco stated that it was delighted at the results of its first auction of 'Ornament, Curiosities and Relics of Old London' held last Saturday by Dreweatts in the historic Georgian setting of Brunswick House in Vauxhall. Prices were keen but many lots sold for above retail prices and much sold to China and some to Japan. A wide variety of stock found new homes and the company found some new customers amidst the trendsetters in the room and during the viewings. The profile of Brunswick House, Lassco's main London showrooms, was raised in the process and there have been some significant after-sales. So, despite taking place in an auction-packed week Lassco said it seems that this might become an annual event.
 
A 30ins high stuffed baby alligator with a red light bulb stuffed in its mouth sold for double estimate £700, three pairs of polished ironclad Victorian pine doors from Norwich Gaol with oval peepholes sold for up to £1,400 per pair. A full size modern compo Porcellino, the Calydonian Bore, on plinth, sold for a low estimate £4,500.
 
A fruitily carved festooned 9ft long oak upper rail, by repute, of Temple Bar's wooden gates sold for a low estimate £8,000, the fruit alluding to the bounteous cornucopia of the City of London to which Temple Bar was an entrance. Rebuilt in 1670-72 by friends of Samuel Pepys, to designs of Christopher Wren, after the Great Fire of London swept away four of the seven city gates, Temple Bar was the most important, from Strand to Fleet Street, representing the shire to the city, gates to liberty and freedom (to make money) where even the Bar itself housed Child's bank in which Pepys had an account, and where the monarch had no powers.
 
The sold by lot figure of around 60 percent belies the split between architectural and decorative antiques, which did less well, and garden antiques which seemed to outperform the average. A number of seats sold from £350 to an Embankment camel bench which went for £2,700. A stoneware Warwick Vase sold for £1,000 and a large wall fountain fetched £1,300, below its £2k low estimate.
 
Top lot was a set of ten French carved wood panels and doors, c1820, of varying proportions removed from a Belgravia property which made a low estimate £12,000. The John Thomas 'Newton' chimneypiece made a below estimate £3,500, a bargain really, and has sold to China.