Garden gnomes are descendants of a fairy tradition of sprites and giants of the ancient world and brought to Victorian England via Germany. According to the Rosicrucians they are misshapen elemental spirits dwelling in the bowels of the earth and guarding mines and quarries, named from the ancient greek 'genomos' or earth-dweller. In the book 'Die große Welt der Gartenzwerge', Etta Bengen writes that 'dwarfish people were treated honourably in the Old Kingdom in Egypt and belonged to the caste of servants, goldsmiths and sculptors' and shows a photo of a life-sized 34cm figure from 2475 BC of the short-lived valet Seneb with his normal-grown family. She also states that the smart, shrewd dwarf has strict work rules, avoids observation, makes himself invisible, is a master of hiding, and jokes with humans. In 1600s German books gnomes were illustrated wearing the Phrygian caps of ancient Greece, passed down as the traditionally red hats pointed worn by gnomes today. In 1874, Philipp Griebel (1843-93) founded a pottery making slip cast hollow ware squirrels, rabbits and gnomes, which is still surviving along with a Gnome Museum, in the town of Gräfenroda in Thuringia, Germany.
 
The two gnomes consigned by the UK trade to the Gaze salvage sale on 16 November were top lots at £4,130 inc premiums where they sold to a private UK collector. The maker was not identified but they were probably nineteenth century German, Rob Kinsella, expert in charge, told Salvo after the sale.
 
Other sale results:
6359 a pair of weathered compo lions guardant couchant 50ins long, 27ins high sold at £750 (plus premium)
6139 a circular cast iron coalhole cover sold for £35 (handy 'Jeremy Corbyn' xmas present)
6025 a pair of early 20thC oak raised and fielded panel double doors with brass bolts £160
6017 16 copperlight 21-pane windows, 13.5ins w x 24ins h £380
6006 a bronze vent or warm air terminal, surmounted by a triumphal arch and two squirrels sejant and a vase, overall height 33ins sold for £700
5431 20 cast iron 'cannon' bollards £550
5309 2 'Gibbons & Masters' firebricks £25 - Gibbons Brothers Limited, Palace Chambers, Westminster, worked on Lowestoft gas works. Modern Gasworks Practice 1921, states: 'In the latest Gibbons & Masters system, slotted fireclay boxes moulded out by machinery are erected side by side in vertical tiers so that no straight joints occur.'
5118 a pair of early 20thC Carron Company cast iron field cookers with brass taps sold for £300 - similar to Dobbie Forbes cast iron coppers used as clothes washing boilers
 
Next Gaze salvage sale Saturday 8 February