Sale rooms
Stocking fillers
Charles Campbell
Some years ago my uncle was taken aside by an American friend who was worried. He needed advice. For Christmas he had bought his wife an aeroplane, not a Piper Cub but something more along the lines of a Caravelle, some dresses, not a dress but the whole collection made in her favourite colour from Cardin (?), and 8 Picasso. Could my uncle suggest somethtl else or did he think that that was enough' My uncle thought it was enough. With this largesse in mind I set out to 'create' a stocking for his son and Baugh" ter. After a quick mental trip to FauchoiL Roger et Gallet and Charvet, I went on mY sleigh around the sale rooms to see what could have found over the last few years Some I might have needed to keep in J Chubb Christmas present drawer for while. For the boy a couple of nice paper weights instead of a tangerine to stuff tilde toe. A St Louis flower weight, £5,950, an a Clichy faceted weight, £4,104 (Christie' '83). Then three toy cars. A Dinky 0%! Van (£600 from Sotheby's May '84), ` clockwork Mercedes Voyager made ,hY5 Bing and a Faberge model car (Christied London '84 and Geneva '83 at £8,500 an £30,000 respectively). Then he'd better 0 have a train set. I could have bought spirit spirit fired 'Rocket' by Marklin for £28,u 'a at Sotheby's in May this year. Then „ model boat. There was a handsome 60-ga" warship made by French prisoners &Ong
the Napoleonic Wars which was sold at Sotheby's at Chester in June '82 for £30,800. After that, a pair of pistols by Alfred Gauvain of Paris in 1851 which were sold at Christie's in November of last year for £30,000.
He ought to have a nice compact reel for the fishing rod his grandfather gave him, so a 'Perfect' two-and-a-half-inch trout reel by Hardy in 1891 (£3,630 Sotheby's '84). He'd better learn to play poker, so I'll get him a pack of cards hand-painted in Lon- don c. 1470 for f99,000 (Sotheby's) and a couple of small items, a corkscrew with magnifying glass (Christie's this December £3,800) and a 12th-century North Euro- pean chess piece, made in bone, which was sold at Sotheby's in June '78 for £45,000. To encourage a love of books 1711 get him a first edition of Casino Royale (£2,500) and an Audubon book of American birds (£1 million Sotheby's '83).
Now for the girl. To stuff the toe of her stocking a Faberge egg which I could have bought at Christie's Geneva for £125,000 in April 1977. Then a William and Mary wooden doll in its original clothes (£17,600 Sotheby's '84). She might need a couple of ornaments for her room so a Meissen figure of Pulchinella (£20,000 Christie's New York, April '84) and an early 19th- century netsuke rat just under two inches long by Masatsugu (Christie's London ear- lier this year for £16,000). She'd find that `cute. To save wrapping paper I might get it into a small gold box. Perhaps the Korff box (1765) by Jean-Pierre Ador from Christie's Geneva in May last year for £125,000. I can get both of those inside a Florentine majolica jar (£30,240 Christie's in December '84).
She'd like a good decorative fan like the one painted by Gustav Klimt for a lady friend in 1899 (£66,000 from Sotheby's December '84). Also from Sotheby's this year a tin plate money box of a little girl skipping, £8,250. If I put in a framed miniature of a lady (from the collection of the Duke of Beaufort sold at Christie's in December '83), she could take out the picture and replace it with a photograph of either Boy George, or Duran Duran. I would like her to have the little Mary Tudor scent bottle (1553) for £110,000 (Sotheby's), which it is rumoured was found in a junk shop.
A couple of books for her too and, as all girls like anthropomorphic books, she can have a first edition of Watership Down (with inscription about £400 at Sotheby's) and a first edition of Black Beauty which if it is in really good nick would set me back about £500.
Soon I shall have to start on next year's stockings. There is a Donald Duck jubilee watch made by Garrard in gold, enamel and diamonds coming up at Sotheby's on 11 January and another Audubon in New York, also in January.
For myself I think I'll take it easy with an Imperial of Ch. Mouton Rothschild 1924 pick Sotheby's September '84), opened with the lad's corkscrew of course.
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