AUCTION Sales round-up
The set of medals including (l-r) the Conspicuous Gallantry medal; Atlantic Star, 1 clasp, France and Germany; Africa Star and Defence and War Medals sold for £90,000
Noonans, Mayfair Medals awarded to one of just five naval aviators to survive the ‘Channel Dash’ sold for a mid-estimate £90,000 at the London auctioneer’s recent sale.
Chief Petty O cer ‘Don’ Bunce was just 20 when he took part in the ‘Channel
Dash’
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Chief Petty Offi cer ‘Don’ Bunce earned the Conspicuous Gallantry Medal – one of six decorations he received for his WWII service as a telegraphist/ air gunner – for his role in one of WWII’s most audacious naval operations and for his “courage which is beyond praise”.
Aged 20, Bunce was one of three crew members of Swordfish ‘L’ from 825 Naval Air Squadron, one of six torpedo bombers scrambled on the afternoon of February 12, 1942, to intercept three German warships—Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, and Prinz Eugen. The ships had been recalled by Hitler from the French port of Brest to Germancontrolled waters in the North Sea via the English Channel.
In inferior planes and with poor armaments, the mission was dubbed “kamikaze”, with one offi cer describing it as with “Their aircraft shattered, undeterred by an inferno of fire, they carried out their orders”. Of the six Swordfish that went in, none returned, just five of 18 airmen living to tell the tale.
Bunce spent the rest of the war as an instructor, until he was demobbed as a chief petty offi cer in 1946. He died in 2008 aged 87 with his naval medals and documents bought by a private collector.
Morean Auctions, Massachusetts A beer can in pristine condition, dating from the 1930s, made history at an American auction house when it sold for $93,600 (£76,000), more than double its low estimate of $40,000 (£32,500).
Brown Derby, produced by Humboldt Brewing in Eureka, California, became one of the first beers, post-Prohibition, to be sold in cans, taking its name from a well-known Los Angeles restaurant. When the eatery’s owners sued for copyright infringement the label was redesigned in a number of colourways, with the rarest ones being brown and green.
The beer can set a record at the US auction house when it sold for £76,000
Vectis, Thornaby-on-Tees A group of Palitoy action figures – one missing an arm – expected to make £15-£25 sold for £800 at the North Yorkshire auction house.
The set came from the 106-lot personal collection of Bob Brechin, the chief designer at Palitoy from 1967 to 1984, who played a pivotal role in managing the iconic Palitoy Action Man and Action Force lines. The collection, expected to make £7,000-£10,000, went on to sell for a total £26,300. Vectis specialist, Steven Furlong, said: “We knew the collection would be popular, as collectors recognise the value in the provenance and authenticity of them. The fact they all came with a certificate signed by Bob himself only added to the demand.”
The set of a dozen action figures sold for multiple times its estimate
Dawsons, Maidenhead A Mary Tudor seal-top spoon, dated to 1555 and made by Nicholas Bartholomew, sold for £6,200 at the Berkshire auction house’s recent sale.
Bartholomew was a prominent London silversmith, active between 1545 to 1588, with this example including his maker’s mark of a crescent enclosing a sta r.
It was the top seller from the collection of 19 early sealtop and apostle spoons from the estate of the late Geraldine Kennedy-Wallace. Geraldine and her husband, Stephen, were both Canadian chemists who moved to the UK.
Seal-top spoons, popular in Tudor and early Stuart England, feature a small, fl at, circular or oval seal at the end of the handle, sometimes engraved with initials or a crest.
Later apostle spoons have the fi gure of an apostle or a saint at the top of the handle. Often given individually as a christening gift, a full set of 12 (13 including Christ) represents each of the disciples.
The spoon includes Bartholomew’s maker’s mark, a crescent enclosing
The seal-top spoon was the top seller from the Kennedy-Wallace collection a star
14 ANTIQUE COLLECTING
