With no disrespect intended, it was always a bit niggly for an old antique like me that the most expensive item sold at auction in Scotland was…a bottle of whisky.
Well, not any more.
Last month, a rare and important 14th Century French gothic cabinet sold for £1,455,000, inclusive of premium, at Lyon & Turnbull in Edinburgh, setting a new auction record for the most valuable work of art ever sold north of the border.
The carved ivory cabinet, or coffret, made around 1330, had been at Tornaveen House in Aberdeenshire for four centuries.
Wild men fighting
Ten minutes of bidding drama across multiple phone lines, that began at £50,000 and ended at £1.2 million, took it to a new owner.
Probably made in a Paris workshop c1330, the cabinet was intricately carved in relief with scenes from literature, including the Arthurian legend of the quest for the holy grail and the medieval romance of Tristan and Isolde.
The lid showed unusual scenes of ‘wild men’ fighting to capture a castle, a popular medieval allegory for the winning of a woman’s heart. Its brass brackets, straps and handle were added later. It measured just 10 x 4.5 inches.
Until it appeared in Lyon & Turnbull’s catalogue, it was not known to exist. It is one of only nine similar examples known and most of the others are in important museum collections, including the Louvre and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The previous high for a single lot sold at a Scottish auction was the £1 million bid for a bottle of The Macallan 1926 sold by Whisky Auctioneer of Perth in February.
