Welcome to the AGM 2021 Online Auction
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Estimated value: $250 / bidding starts at $75
Postage & Handling:
$15 domestic / $TBD international
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Late nineteenth-century wooden writing slope with mother-of-pearl detail
English. When closed: 8½ x 12 x 4¾ inches.
For the writer and historian. This may not be Jane Austen’s writing slope, but if you squint it’s really pretty close. Trimmed with inlay and mother of pearl, the box opens to reveal an 8 x 14 sloped, burgundy leather, writing surface. Inside is a crystal ink bottle, pen holder (with secret cavity below), and another well for stamps or nibs. Both sides of the slope open to reveal extra storage for billet-doux underneath. Indeed, someone long ago must have hidden something so important that it demanded a forcing of the lock when the key was lost. A few scratches mark the top of the box, which proudly shows signs of age (see photos). If only this object could talk! On the underside, the box is protected by green baize (the type that Mrs. Norris “spunges” in Mansfield Park). Imagine the elegant letters you can write from this slope while travelling. You can also use it from the comforts of home when following the best light around the house or when a desk is not available. This deserves a prominent place in your study.
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Donated by Sandra Clark
Estimated Value: $650-1000 / bidding starts at $200
Postage & Handling:
$16 domestic / $55 international
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Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility
In Richard Bentley’s “Standard Novels and Romances” series (London, 1846). In original trade binding, stamped with “2/6” on spine. Extremely rare.
This Bentley is rarer than hen’s teeth. Richard Bentley famously reprinted the works of Miss Austen in his “Standard Novels” series starting in 1833, using the then-new technology of stereotyping to bring book prices down to six shillings. But while this 1846 copy is printed from those same plates and carries the elegant frontispiece for which Bentley’s series is famous, it is one of the rarest survivors of his Austens. For in 1846, the face of fiction reading and book buying changed forever with the introduction of cheap railway editions that forced Bentley to change the way he did business. Bentley responded to the competition by dropping his own reprint price to 2s.6d. for volumes in standard cloth bindings with blind stamping, a bit of gilt on the spine, a pre-printed price, internal advertising, and a simplified title page. As these endpapers promise, this placed Austen “within reach of all classes of readers.” But Bentley’s down-market venture was short-lived and so few of these copies survive. Read more about these circumstances in The Lost Books of Jane Austen (Barchas used Sandra Clark’s collection).
Because Chawton House owns its own Bentley copies of Austen, you can own this lone “cheap” survivor. This binding is nice and tight and has been neatly repaired at the spine. This rare survivor is in unbelievable shape but for a tiny tear at the bottom of the frontispiece and a few foxed pages at front and back. A former owner’s name has been scratched out in pencil. (See photos.)
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Donated by Sandra Clark
Antique gold chainmail coin purse
3¼ inches. Edwardian, circa 1902.
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A delicate and unusual yellow gold chainmail coin purse for your reticule or outfit. Perfect for those guineas you wish to spend in the emporium—or the tokens you won at whist. With a cut-cornered rectangular form in delicate gold mesh, the purse is suspended from a hinged frame with ivy-leafed decoration. The frame has three hallmarks that are unclear, so the estimated date is based upon the style. Dangling from the bottom of the purse are four little decorative gold balls. The ring on the hinged frame allows this to be worn around the neck, too, on a ribbon or chain. Mother-of-pearl tokens included, so you can place that first bet on a winning hand.
Estimated Value: $100-250+ / bidding starts at $30
Postage & Handling: $10 domestic / $30 international
Two 14K gold miniature portrait pendants, with diamond chips
3 cm and 2½ cm. Early 20th century. English.
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Imagine yourself wearing one of these fashionable ladies on a velvet ribbon in the hollow of your neck as you stride into a gala or an awards ceremony. Heck, you will want to wear these around the house while doing the laundry. In fact, you should get an award for that! One pendant shows a regency beauty in a blue dress with puff sleeves, while the other—slightly faded—bears a passing resemblance to Georgiana Cavendish, sans giant hat. Both ladies have small diamond chips at the neck and ear on the portrait. Both have rows of tiny hallmarks on the back.
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Estimated value: $100-120 for the pair / bidding starts at $25
Postage & Handling: $10 domestic / $30 international
Two costume jewelry pendants of painted ladies
4½ cm and 2½ cm. Timeless.
Both pendants show proud ladies in powdered hair and Georgian flounced dresses, demanding the full circumference of their hoops. These color-saturated ladies knew about social distancing before we did. And they look like celebrities. One is dropping her handkerchief in her attempt to catch your attention, so that you will wear her on a ribbon close to your heart. On the back, both are marked “TLM” and “Made in England.”
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Estimated value: $50 for the pair / bidding starts at $20
Postage & Handling: $10 domestic / $30 international
Late 18th century silver-mounted horn & tortoise snuff box
Top lid is 3.5 cm x 7.5 cm. Marked on the bottom with a tag from over a decade ago, at last purchase: $260
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This Georgian snuff box is made of horn and tortoise shell, with silver details. It bears three initials on the engraved, silver, inlay escutcheon, and yet the provenance is unknown. Hinged lid still tight. The shell is dry and needs some buffing and oiling, but the piece is otherwise in great shape. Since the taking of snuff is no longer fashionable (thank goodness for that!), we suggest you carry your daily vitamins, meds, or Splenda tablets in this stylish piece of history instead.
Donated by Cassandra Clark
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Estimated value: $300 / bidding starts at $75
Postage & Handling: $10 domestic / $30 international
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Victorian sterling silver jewelry dish, with another of silver plate in a later design (c. 1920s)
Each are 2 ¾ inch diameter. Victorian, circa 1890s.
(Creative Jane not included)
Perfect for your homestead, plus an extra for that holiday cottage which you have decorated (or always meant to) in art deco glamour. Alternatively, keep the silver one for yourself and give the plated dish to a magpie friend. The Victorian dish is embossed with sunflowers and bears the requisite hallmarks. It has a crimped and scalloped rim. Adorable.
Estimated value: $50+ / bidding starts at $20
Postage & Handling: $10 domestic / $30 international