Technica & Nautica

It's October, and autumn is well under way, with cool winds turning both the trees and our cheeks red. These autumnal winds also sweep across Stockholm's Frihamnen and Magasin 5, where we at Stockholms Auktionsverk are marking the arrival of the season with this year's second edition of "Technica & Nautica". We have chosen 149 colourful lots to share with you.

This autumn's edition leans a little more heavily on the technical side, so to speak, unlike its spring counterpart, which usually looks ahead to a summer at sea. Now we curl up indoors in the warmth instead and turn our attention to the small and the puzzling. Crosswords and sudoku are all very well, but can they compete with an encryption device? A pinwheel calculator? A presentation box of ball bearings? You would be hard pressed to find anything more puzzling.

Among the technical instruments, we recommend a closer look at the seemingly unassuming little encryption device, housed in a case resembling a pocket watch. This "Krypto System Beyer" is the product of a Danish inventor's ingenious mind. It is also rare, with only 7 examples known to date. Other pieces well worth highlighting are the imaginative planetarium signed Ernst Schotte, several early pocket sundials and compasses, the three pinwheel calculators of entirely different character, and the collection of jukeboxes: few in number but large in size. Three melodious giants have taken up residence in the warehouse.

For those who would rather see the dark season behind them, there is of course also a generous helping of nautica. Here you will find ship models en masse, so true to life that we can almost hear the waves lapping and splashing against sun-warmed, tar-scented wood.

Especially rare are the approximately 13 sailing models, or pond yachts. Most were made in England, but there is also a Swedish example. They date from the late 19th century to the 1960s, with the majority made before 1950. They show visible signs of keen use, mainly in the form of water-stained sails. Could a buyer perhaps get a little splash of the Serpentine's time-honoured water thrown in? Or of the salty waters off Sandhamn?

But it is still autumn, and there are many days left before the sun once again warms the air and the water. Perhaps a lantern could light the way until then?