The Duke of Devonshire’s rummage sale has turned into a festival for Sotheby’s and British fans of the aristocracy. Sotheby’s released a slew of figures related to the sale this week. The sale total was $10.3m (£6.5m) with 98% of the 1416 lots sold — an astounding figure.
Number of helicopters that landed by the marquee: 12
Number of horseboxes used to collect lots purchased at the sale: 15
Number of people who came to the pre-sale exhibition: nearly 6,000
Number of catalogues sold prior to the sale: 12,500
Number of clients who bid at the sale: 1,719 comprising:
Bidders in the room: 915 Absentee bidders: 254 Telephone bidders: 180
Clients registered to bid online: 250 Lots sold to online bidders: 120, ranging from £50 to £42,500
Lot with the highest number of individual bids: lot 1339 (Dowager Duchess’s brooch), 80 bidders• Lot 1339, a ruby and diamond bow-shaped brooch, with the words ‘L’amour en fait le lien’ (“love binds together”) in enamel, c. 1900. The brooch belonged to Dowager Duchess of Devonshire and sold for £8,500 – more than 100 times the pre-sale estimate of £80-100)
• A rare Maori Nephrite Pendant (lot 450, a hei-tiki), found hidden in the back of a dark
cupboard in the storerooms at Chatsworth. Kept in embellished treasure boxes, and brought out on special occasions by the Maori, hei-tiki were considered “trophy” finds by Captain Cook and his crew, who were the first to bring them back to England (giving one to King George III, now in the Royal Collection). This pendant was possibly acquired by the 6th Duke of Devonshire in the early 19th century. Today it sold to an anonymous private buyer, bidding over the telephone, for £45,650 – more than six times the pre-sale low estimate of £7,000• Lot 736, “The Monkey Table”, a Japanese Lacquered Centre Table, is “supported by three mangy stuffed monkeys”, [The Dowager Duchess of Devonshire]. Purchased by the Bachelor Duke at the Great Exhibition of 1851, this rare and unusual item sold for £22,500 against an estimate of £3,000-5,000
• Lot 1359, a pair of polychrome decorated pressed and wrought metal hall lanterns, c.
1890, that hung in the vast entrance hall at Batsford Park, house of the Mitford Family,
sold for £31,250 – over 200 times the pre-sale low estimate of £150• Lot 1419, a Humber open touring four-seater car, 1915 delivered by Humber to the
Cavendish Motor Company in the summer of 1915 and purchased for £350, known as the Yellow Peril, sold for £42,500 (est. £3,000-5,000)• Lot 1422, a Triumph Stag V8, owned by Lord Burlington, the Duke’s son and heir, and complete with Arsenal sticker on hard top, sold for £6,875
• Lot 1364, a marmet canvas and tubular steel mounted 1950s perambulator sold for £250 (est. £10-15)