Auction News: Bidders take vampire’s tomb to heart
FILM fans really got their teeth into a prop from a classic British vampire movie when it went under the hammer in the Cotswolds last week.
The wood and fibreglass tomb appeared in the 1971 Hammer House of Horror flick Lust for a Vampire.
And bidders who wanted a stake in Mircalla Herritzen’s final resting place pushed the bidding to £440 before the gavel came down at Moore Allen & Innocent in Cirencester on Friday, June 17.
That wasn’t the top lot price of the day, however.
That accolade was achieved by something far more cheerful: an oil painting in the impressionist style attributed to W Thompson: a copy of Hip, Hip, Hurrah! by Norwegian-Danish painter Peder Severin Krøyer, which achieved £550.
The picture shows members of the so-called Skagen Painters: a group of Danish, Norwegian and Swedish artists.
The original hangs in the Gothenburg Museum of Art.
A collection of 19th century Chinese pottery achieved the second highest lot price (£550), while a J W Benson of London pocket watch with white enamel dial and nine carat gold chain took third place.
A collection of oil lamps, including an Art Nouveau style lamp with clear cut glass bowl on metal base with ball feet, attracted a bid of £460, as did a large collection of 18th century and later Chinese porcelain.
And while the movie prop was perhaps the most unusual lot in the sale, it wasn’t the only quirky lot with an interesting tale to tell.
Among a collection of metalwares which achieved a winning bid of £400 was a pewter bourdaloue.
The bourdaloue is named after the French Jesuit preacher Louis Bourdaloue (1632 to 1704) who was renowned for his important contributions to philosophy and moral theology, but also, sadly, for the length of his sermons.
Desperate female churchgoers sought a method by which a receptacle could be discreetly manoeuvred under the skirts, for the purposes of bladder relief.
And thus, Louis Bourdaloue is today best remembered not for his sermons, but for the chamber pot he inspired.
For more information about buying and selling antiques at auction log on to mooreallen.co.uk
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