22 NOVEMBER 1968, Page 21

Make me an offer

CHRISTOPHER HOLLIS

Oh, ring-a-ring-a-roses, Ring for the dealers' prize And see the bidding closes Before the prices rise.

They buy by nods and winking— The dodge the dealer knows— Before the seller's thinking It might be Duccio's.

Then when it's valued higher By men of taste and touch They sell it to a buyer For fifty times as much.

Oh, ring-a-ring-a-roses, And how the fortune's made, And how the ring proposes To dish the Board of Trade.