‘It has the appeal of being quite a conversation piece – the date of the Coronation is wrong!’
The little chocolate box that sparked a big bidding war(Image: davidduggleby.com)
An empty Rowntree’s chocolate box went for £1,700 after sparking an international bidding battle when it went under the hammer in an auction in Scarborough on Friday (August 7). The amazing saleroom scrap was won by a Hull collector who not only saw off the challenge of rivals all over the UK, but also bidders in the Middle East and Japan.
The 125-year-old box, which originally contained just a single bar of chocolate, was a solid-silver version of the thousands of souvenir tins issued by Rowntree of York to mark the coronation of King Edward VII in 1902. Just a handful of the silver boxes were commissioned by Rowntree from the Sheffield silversmiths Cooper Brothers & Sons – those went to the King and Queen and a few members of the Rowntree family.
It is thought only one of the silver boxes has ever appeared in an auction previously, at a sale in London in 2007, when a box that a member of the Rowntree family gave to his head coachman made £1,200. Holly Hammond, of auctioneers David Duggleby, said: “The level of interest in the auction was quite astonishing.
“After media and Internet news coverage around the world – Europe, North America, the Far East, New Zealand, and Australia – we found ourselves dealing with enquiries and bidding from all over the place. The initial prediction was that the chocolate box could make £800-£1,000 but that estimate was passed by advance bids days ahead of the sale.
“The action in the live auction got under way at £1,100 and quickly settled into a three-way scrap involving bidders in Britain, Cyprus and Japan. For a moment it did look as if the chocolate box was about to take the 6,000 mile trip to Tokyo but, at the death, the Hull collector came in with the winning £1,700 offer.
“So, despite the global challenge the box is making the rather shorter journey down the road from the Scarborough saleroom to a private collection on the banks of the River Humber.” Holly said: “It has been a great pleasure to handle such an interesting piece and for the saleroom to establish what would seem to be a new record price.
“The condition of the silver box was quite remarkable. The boxes were issued to the Royals and the members of the Rowntree family in red leather cases and the one in the auction retained its original case, which explained the condition in which it remained a century and a quarter after it was made.”
Holly added: “On top of everything else, it has the appeal of being quite a conversation piece – the date of the Coronation emblazoned on the front of the box, June 26th 1902, is wrong! The King and Queen were due to be crowned on June 26th but King Edward was taken ill with an abdominal abscess that required surgery shortly before the date and the ceremony was postponed for six weeks.
“The coronation did not actually happen until 9th August. It was too late to do anything about the mass of souvenir coronation commemorative wares.
“They had not only been manufactured but all distributed – including some rather special silver chocolate boxes that went to just a few very lucky recipients.”
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