A Cumbrian auction house is celebrating after its latest sporting sale made a record amount.
Lots at the Mitchells auction made a total of £122,000 – beating its previous record by £24,000.
Auctioneer and sporting specialist at the Cockermouth firm, James Moore, said: “The sheer quality and quantity of sporting items means our sale totals are increasing substantially.
“Mitchells’ reputation is growing not just regionally but nationally which means we’re attracting higher and higher quality lots for our sales.
“The large scale taxidermy in this sale also attracted buyers beyond our usual sporting sale audience which had a positive impact on the hammer prices.”
The most valuable lot in the sale was a massive moose shoulder mount which finally sold for £4,100 against an estimate of £1,000 to £1,500.
The moose came from the home of the Carlisle-born author, adventurer and conservationist Dave Hill who wrote The Arctic , the Inuit and the Polar Bear in 2016.
From the same home, a black bear skin rung with mounted head sold for £950.
A Victorian Golden Eagle with mountain hare prey mounted on a driftwood log made £700.
The most valuable gun was a rare Duval MacNaughton a cal 577/450 rifle with Martini Henry style action and 26 inch rifled barrel sold for £3,500.
The rifle was designed by Joseph Duval of Quebec, patented by Edward Alexander Prentice of Montreal and manufactured by James MacNaughton of Edinburgh.
A cased 12 bore side by side shotgun with 27 inch barrels by R Blanton, Market Place, Ringwood, Herts made £1,700.
The sale also featured the last ride out for The Solway Vintage Guns Museum’s Gundle shop delivery bike which sold for £420, part of the private collection of the late Reg Carruthers, who died in January.
A much loved and familiar face around shooting grounds and salerooms in the county, Reg’s wife Elizabeth and family were present in the saleroom as his collection of over 400 lots of vintage guns and accessories from the Solway Vintage Guns Museum which he founded were sold, including some rare and unusual items.
A wildfowling Punt gun measuring 8ft 4in in length made £2,600 and a Coombes of Bath large flintlock musket made £1,200.
A cased Joseph Lang pinfire double barrel shotgun in fine order was also sold for £700.
The top selling lot in the fishing section was a House of Hardy The Compleat AnglerPresentation Set which sold for £850 against an estimate of £300 to £500.
Other eye-catching lots were two mid 20th century pigeon decoys by Daniel Foster which flew past their estimate of £80 to £120, finally selling for £650.
The decoys were handmade by Daniel Foster who is thought to have been a gamekeeper at Cockermouth Castle in the early 1930s.
Elsewhere, a Simpson of Wigton 30-hour longcase clock with label to the interior stating it had once belonged to the famous huntsman John Peel (1776-1854) made £200.
