Sale of the century

ANTIQUE SALES have achieved a high profile in recent years with many television programmes devoted to the subject and few attics and cellars in the land have not been thoroughly searched for something previously overlooked and now worth a small fortune. For this reason, the regular auctions attract a dedicated band of enthusiasts on the lookout for a bargain from past times, a painting, an item of silver or porcelain, a first edition book or a rare piece of furniture that no one has spotted before.

Sales held a similar attraction in past times whenever the contents of a house were being disposed of although in those days there was also an element of curiosity as to what the departed possessed as well as its current value and this resulted in the biggest auction ever known in Bourne which was held at the Corn Exchange more than a century ago.

One of the richest men in the history of the town was undoubtedly Robert Mason Mills (1819-1904), founder of Bourne’s aerated water business. He began as manager of a chemist’s shop at No 1 West Street and from the time he became the owner three years later, he lived in the rooms above the shop where he married, raised a family and died.

During his lifetime he was an antiquarian and art collector who amassed an immense amount of period furniture, paintings, engravings, silver, porcelain and other objects d’art. He collected anything that was old and interesting and workmen on building sites, road mending and any other project that involved turning the soil, knew that if they uncovered something that might have a value and took it to Mr Mills, he would undoubtedly give them a shilling or so in return.

Mills also attended sales whenever the contents of cottages came on the market after the death of their owners, regularly visited the shops of dealers in the area and bought anything that took his fancy if friends were hard up. He was, therefore, a magpie, an inveterate hoarder and soon amassed a collection to rival any provincial museum because he also knew the provenance and value of most of the items he had acquired.

The true extent of his collection was revealed after his death on 17th March 1904, aged 85, because everything from his home in West Street was sold at a two-day auction at the Corn Exchange on Tuesday and Wednesday, 17th-18th May and included the contents from two reception rooms, a library and five bedrooms.

Also sold were his art collection of 140 oil paintings and engravings, one of the highest prices paid being ten guineas (worth £600 at today's values) for The Red Hall, Bourne, by an artist named Arthur C Glendening. The other lots included two chiming clocks, Chippendale, Sheraton and other furniture including old carved oak chests and cabinets, a set of parquetry inlaid chairs on cabriole legs and a 10-foot Pollard walnut sideboard, silver and Sheffield plate dating back to Queen Anne and earlier, porcelain such as Wedgwood, Worcester, Newhall and Derby, Staffordshire figures, bronzes, glass and earthenware and 60 dozen bottles of vintage port wine from 1868 and 1875, an indication of the life style to which he had become accustomed.

The people of Bourne flocked to the sale and every seat in the hall was taken with standing room at the back even before the auctioneer had taken the rostrum. Most were not there to buy but to see who did and how much they paid for it. We know of the interest stimulated in the town by the sale because the diary of someone who was a schoolgirl at the time has survived. Emma Parker, daughter of the minister at the United Reformed Church in Eastgate, the Rev Thomas Parker, was nine years old but remembered a friend coming to stay and going to the Corn Exchange with other relatives. "They went for the entertainment because I am sure they did not want to buy anything", she wrote.

Indeed, the prices fetched were beyond the reach of most local people but the sale did attract many of the wealthier citizens of the town who were anxious to acquire objects d’art that either took their fancy or even might be going cheap. The prints and oil paintings which were sold on the fist day drew a large crowd of buyers, including many dealers from London, and all were meticulously catalogued with details of their provenance, names that today command very high saleroom prices when they come up for auction and reflected the lifetime’s interest of an assiduous and knowledgeable collector. Quite by chance, we are able to say exactly who bought what because someone who attended the sale also annotated this part of the catalogue in pencil and I have recently acquired a copy of it and can therefore not only identify the various lots but also who bought them and for how much.

Among the main buyers were Robert Gardner of Cawthorpe Hall, local magistrate and himself an artist of some repute, while others went to Thomas Mays of Eastgate House, a wealthy fellmonger, and Dr John Gilpin of Brook Lodge, one of the town’s family doctors. One particular set of paintings excited great interest, a collection of 23 country scenes by Edward Robert Smythe (1810-99) which were catalogued as having being bought by Mills directly from the artist and so we may assume that they had become friends during his lifetime. There was much spirited bidding for them but the collection was dispersed to various buyers for a total of £53 13s. (£3,000 at today’s values)

The sale fetched a total of almost £900 which would be worth more than £50,000 today and it is interesting to contemplate where these items are now and how many have changed hands since, most certainly for much higher prices than in 1904.