A POTTERY set, a painting and a sketch book fetched a combined $18,000 at Tullochs Auctions yesterday – but no one got near the most valuable lot of the day.
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A colonial-era wooden bench – known as a settle – will remain at the Invermay auction house after it failed to attract a bid near its estimated $10,000 value.
‘‘We got a bid for eight [thousand], but it wasn’t enough in our minds,’’ auctioneer Scott Millen said.
Mr Millen said the settle, built in 1830s Tasmania from Australian cedar, could have gone for a third of its price, were it not for the advice from a wood doctor in Victoria.
‘‘A few people thought it might have been an Indian import, which would have made it less valuable,’’ he said.
‘‘We sent a sample over to Melbourne to be sure, and it turns out we had something really special on our hands.’’
About 900 antiques and collectibles went under the hammer yesterday, with a Campbell and McHugh pottery collection the most expensive sale at $8000.
An oil painting by Hobart-born Archibald Prize winner Geoff Dyer went for $6000, while a set of sketches credited to landscape artist John Glover fetched $4000.
