Lawrences’ bi-annual auction of Militaria, Coins and Medals comprised over 750 lots and keen participation from internet bidders ensured that little was left unsold.
Highlights included a Grenadier Guards sword in the 1822 pattern, that had belonged to Frederic Thesiger, later Lord Thesiger (1827-1905), a notable figure in the Zulu Wars (whose role was played by Peter O’Toole in the film `Zulu Dawn`). His illustrious army career ended not on the battlefield but at a snooker table in London when he collapsed with a seizure.
This sword made £3780. Continuing the military theme, a 21st Lancers French grey jacket doubled expectations to take £1400. Amongst many lots of firearms, four lots were notable successes: a Queen Anne flintlock pistol made £1900, another flintlock pistol with bayonet by A P Bond of Cornhill made £2070, an 18th Century Bavarian hunting rifle made £2440 and a brass barrelled flintlock blunderbuss by Walklate of London was bid to £1400.
Medals also performed predictably well, with a Hertfordshire Yeomanry Tank Corps group awarded to Pte Ernest W Andrews making £2560, a DSO group of four to Colonel William B Ritchie of the South Lancashire Regiment took £3660, and a poignant group of seven Great War medals awarded to two Say brothers from South Petherton reached £4750. One brother had died at Gallipoli in 1915, the other at Passchendaele in 1917.
A wide variety of coins found eager buyers: a James I unite of c.1604-1619 made £1640, a Queen Victoria Golden Jubilee £5 gold piece (1887) made £1760, and a group of modern Krugerrands made up to £970 apiece.
