Instruments strike a chord with international bidders
More than £45,000 has been raised at an auction of musical instruments all found in the same home, with one harpsichord sold for £8,000.
Giles Hodges, of Boldon Auction Galleries, was invited to the home of the late Dr Ian Brunt in County Durham to collect the instruments for sale.
But in addition to being a GP, Dr Brunt, who sadly passed away on January 21, aged just 58 following a long-term illness, was also a composer and an accomplished musician on a wide variety of instruments.
His very spacious living room contained two large church organs, six harpsichords and seven grand pianos.
He also owned various wind instruments including flutes and Northumbrian pipes.
A van, a 7.5-ton lorry and six men were needed to move the items from Lanchester to the auction house in Boldon.
The highest figure of £8,000 was reached for a 1995 harpsichord made by the renowned Robert Deegan of Lancaster.
Two square grand pianos went for £7,500 each, while the larger of the two church organs went to a bidder in Germany for the comparative bargain price of £3,200.
The auction house says the sale went “fantastically well”, with most of the instruments sold for well in excess of their estimated values.
The church organs went to new owners abroad.
Several other harpsichords were also in the thousands, while one set of Northumbrian pipes fetched £460.
Auctioneer Giles said: “It was a very good sale as we expected it would be. It wasn’t an everyday sale. To find so many harpsichords and organs in one home is most unusual.
“There were two or three people who would have loved to have bought
some of the items but simply didn’t have the room for them. A chap from Durham was really keen, but didn’t have enough space even just for storage.
“The larger of the two church organs, a 1991 HE Prested, was sold to a bidder in Germany. The smaller one was sold to a gentleman in Hungary.
“Everything has gone to new homes where they where they will be appreciated. That’s what this game is all about.”