Throughout the course of getting ready for an auction one of the things we like to do, once the catalogue has been published, is try to guess what the best selling lot will be in the auction. We all have our different methods of what we take into account to come to this decision, for the auctioneer it is his 20+ years of experience & gut feeling, for the porter, his gut feeling, for our part time office administrator it’s often whatever is the quirkiest, for the photographer a combination of what she liked when she was doing the photography, her years of working here & seeing it all and the quality of the items, for me, I like to go through the system to see what are our most watched lots (which doesn’t always mean a lot will do well, but often can do, but I like looking!) & make a decision from those, plus if I see something I really like, I like to think (often erroneously!) that it will obviously do well 🙂

So for next Wednesday’s auction, our most watched lots (in no particular order) are:

Lot 46 – A Gentleman’s stainless steel Omega seamaster, 120m quartz wristwatch, with a blue dial with batons and date aperture on a stainless steel bracelet strap, cased with some paperwork 
Estimates: £300 – 500
Lot 127 – A gentleman’s stainless steel Rolex Oyster Perpetual superlative chronometer wristwatch, with a gilt dial and batons, case No.14203, serial number W859299, 35mm diameter on a Rolex Bi Metallic strap No.62523 H 18, with boxes and papers
Estimates: £1,500 – 2,000
Lot 43 – Coral necklaces together with a Scottish silver brooch, silver cigarette case, silver vesta cases, Cartier boxes etc
Estimates: £100 – 150
Lot 339 – John Brunsdon
Worms Head
A limited edition etching, No. 123/150
Signed in pencil to the margin
59.5 x 45cm (image size)
With Christie’s Contemporary Art Certificate
Estimates: £80 – 120
Lot 392 – A Prince of Wales Investiture Chair, The Earl of Snowden and Carl Toms, a red painted beech and laminate elbow chair produced for the Investiture of the Prince of Wales the back gilt decorated with the Prince of Wales feathers and motto Ich Dien with a padded seat 77cm high, 4000 of these chairs were produced for the 1969 Investiture at Caernarfon Castle North Wales, together with a related seat cushion
Estimates: £300 – 500
Lot 187 – A Victorian dress sword, with an arched fullered blade, the pierced scrolling guard with VR cypher, to a shagreen grip together with another dress sword
Estimates: £100 – 150
Lot 435 – A live steam engine, in green livery together with a GWR tender in green, another tender, and parts of engines etc
Estimates £1,500 – 2000

And my favourite lot in the sale

Lot 350 – John Knapp Fisher
Trees on the skyline
Watercolour
Signed and dated 1995
11 x 12cm
Estimates – £400 – 600

: