SADDO that I am, I can quite happily while away an hour or three gazing at ‘killing stuff’ online. What’s more, ever since selling my treasured naval cannon, I have been surreptitiously searching for a replacement to restore a sense of menace to our garden. So I was intrigued to spot a bronze cohorn mortar, made in the Ottoman Empire, with a brass plate referencing the occupation of Scutari [modern-day Albania] by the Great Powers in May 1913. A fine-looking thing, guaranteed to gee up the dowdiest of gardens. Price: north of £30,000.
Reach for my 14-15 November Antony Cribb auction catalogue – catalogues are brilliant research tools – and there, just as I remembered, was another seemingly similar Scutari mortar that had sold for £5,500 (estimate £5,000-£8,000). Definitely not the same mortars – they have different coloured wooden mounts, and I cannot comment on condition as I have inspected neither – but perhaps one of a
