Auctions

John Windsor
Friday 21 October 1994 23:02 BST
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WHERE DID you get that maxi-coat with sheepskin collar, cuffs and hem - Afghanistan in the Sixties? And that bondage shirt of white cheesecloth emblazoned 'DESTROY' with a Vivienne Westwood Seditionaries label - Camden market?

Both are Christie's South Kensington, 1994 - in the first auction of 'street fashion', Tuesday (2pm). Auctioneers, those with the port and mahogany lifestyle, have been secretly acquiring street wisdom. They have halted well short of the gutter. There are few punk-deconstructivist items among the 80 lots. 'Street' for swinging auctioneers means Carnaby Street rather than the Caledonian Road. More linen than leather. Plenty from Saint Laurent and Biba. Take a couple of hundred pounds.

As for the bondage shirt, as worn on stage by the Sex Pistols in the Seventies, it has a high-falutin reference (page 344, History of 20th Century Fashion by Jane Mulvagh) and an estimate elevated to match: pounds 350- pounds 400. A common print, it would be priced about pounds 160 at real street level - shops in Tisbury Court, Soho, for example. A pair of Sex Pistols 'Anarchy' handkerchiefs is pounds 100- pounds 150: odd, I thought they used their sleeves.

NO-SWEAT SHIRTS Snootiest street chic: football jerseys. The one worn by Ray Kennedy at the European Cup Final in 1977 (Liverpool 3, Borussia Moenchengladbach 1) fetched pounds 2,200 at Christie's Glasgow a year ago. Wednesday's sale of football memorabilia there (11am) has as top jersey the one worn by Dennis Viollet, a Munich disaster survivor, at the 1958 FA Cup Final (Manchester United 0, Bolton Wanderers 2). The est is pounds 1,000- pounds 1,200 - but pounds 100 will buy a less memorable one. I am told that, unlike the market for Elvis memorabilia, football jerseys are collected sweat-free. Washing shrinks: discreet dry cleaning preferred. Most collections are quite fragrant.

COUNTRYWIDE For trend-setting country dwellers scorning urban street styles, cast-iron tractor seats are an indispensable fashion accessory. A multi- coloured collection of 50, cast with such legendary names as Blackstone and Martin, are to be auctioned without reserve at Alconbury Weston, Cambridge, next Saturday (10.30am). There are also collectable petrol cans and farm curios, vintage tractors, show drays and carts and 59 shire horses. Joint auctioneers: Cheffins Grain & Comins (0799 523656) and Thimbleby & Shorland (0734 508611).

Moyne Park, near Abbeyknockmoy, Co Galway: Residue clearances of Greenmount, Co Limerick, instructions of Earl and Countess of Herrington, and Cool- na-Grena, Co Mallow, Thursday (10.15am). Mealy's (010 353 56 41229).

Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire: At DRMO Molesworth, Building 51, United States military surplus including clothing, typewriters, photocopiers and an upright piano, Thursday (10am). DRMO (0480 842635).

Edinburgh: Textiles belonging to the Earl of Minto, 320 lots of toy trains, tinplate, diecast, dolls, teddies, scientific instruments, mechanical music, photographic apparatus and other collectables, Friday (11am). Phillips, 65 George Street (031 225 2266).

FAIRS Pop Culture Memorabilia, Wembley Exhibition Centre, tomorrow. Steven Currie (041 357 4486).

Upstairs Downstairs Antique and Collectors, Town Centre, Hatfield, next Saturday and Sunday (0707 257777).

Countrywide: Antiques Trade Gazette (071-930 4957) and Government Auction News (071- 928 9001, hotline 0891 887700).

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