Beatrice asked about the auction next week in NZ.  This is the Bryan
Jackson collection and is housed in an old post office about 1/2 a mile
from my house in Devonport.

It is a vast collection of some 30,00 objects, from music boxes to
corkscrews.  I have spent most of today going through the collection
and carried out the valuations on the music boxes gramophones and coin
operated equipment for one of the international companies tendering
to auction it.

The whole collection was sold to a vintage car collector in Chicago as
I understand it.  There is an antiquities act in NZ which can make the
taking of historical items out of the country very difficult.  So it
was decided to have the collection auctioned here and let the buyers
sort out whether they can remove the stuff after the auction.

Not an altogether satisfactory method, I would think, from the buyers
point of view.  Anyway as can be seen on the Web the auction company
have had some difficulty in getting it all listed correctly and one can
understand how when you look at what's there.

Bryan altered things as he saw fit so much of the collection is not
original and over restored.  All the music boxes need work.  In some
instances the comb base has been cut and new teeth glued or soldered
in.  Many have new cases made up from the front panels of old piano
cases.  Beatrice is right about the Chamber organ: it is a beautiful
instrument and as far as I can see has not been Jacksonised.

Unfortunately the nett descriptions are not complete and don't mention
reproduction cases, etc., but Bryan didn't tell them.  The catalogue is
better.

It is the type of sale where you really have to see the pieces for
yourself, as I suppose you have to do with any auction.  Hope this is
helpful.

Rod Cornelius
phone/fax 64 9 4452776
rodcorn@ihug.co.nz