Commode sold for R2.6m at auction

Its starting price was set at R180,000 but an 18th-century commode fetched R2.6-million at an auction in Cape Town on Monday. As usual, the auctioneers took bids from the room first - a grand salon at the Vineyard Hotel, in Claremont - and the figures were "already strong".The commode, with its foliate mounts and ornate handles, is made of rosewood and dates back to the Régence, a period in French history between 1715 and 1723.