"The New Zealand Historic Places Trust’s auditing and assessment of all the objects in its properties nationwide continues to go from strength to strength. When the cataloguing project started early in 2008 it had been estimated there were around 35,000 objects in the NZHPT’s collection. This was based on paper records and estimates by property staff. The cataloguing team has now entered almost 60,000 items into Vernon – a museum-quality database – with an estimated 10,000 further items to be catalogued. The audit process has been thorough, recording and photographing each object and adding them to the database. Associated documentation has also been scanned and added to Vernon.
Image: Lot 75 Wedgwood Fairylands Lustre Vase estimated at $7,500 - $12,500
A large Victorian clerk's desk and an impressive roll top desk sold in Scunthorpe recently for only £100 due to an extreme fishy smell. The items which had served a 100 years service at the Grimsby Fish Docks would normally have sold for around £1,000 but buyers were put off by the wafting scent. I would imagine 100 years worth of fishy residue would be hard to budge! Article from The Scunthorpe Telegraph online.
In 1974 The City of Westminster Archives purchased an 1846 diary of 19-year old wharf clerk, Nathaniel Bryceson. This year they will publish each of the 260 diary entries for each corresponding day in 2010. Follow him through public hangings, excursions with his mistress and musings on food and the weather.
