Latest News Articles by Tom Derbyshire
Busby contract demands the beautiful game
30 April 2018Manchester United fans grumbling about the current style of play will be interested to learn that when Matt Busby joined as manager he was contractually obliged to play entertaining football.
Matt Busby first Manchester United contract up at auction demands attractive football style
26 April 2018Forget Jose Mourinho being criticised for a stultifying style of play at Manchester United – when Matt Busby started as manager of the Red Devils he was contractually obliged to play entertaining football.
Spink specialist takes role as Lord Ashcroft’s medals curator
23 April 2018Spink medals specialist David Erskine-Hill is leaving to take over as Lord Ashcroft’s medals curator on the retirement of Michael Naxton.
The trailblazing bicycle design made instantly redundant by the pneumatic tyre comes to auction
20 April 2018You have to feel some sympathy for the innovative designers Charles Linley and John Biggs. Having just perfected a classic bicycle using an ingenious method of shock absorbing for a solid-tyre bike, then the pneumatic tyre came along.
Magnificent travelling case for the gentleman who needs everything is up at auction
18 April 2018Nowadays a ‘gentleman’ travelling is probably more concerned about a mobile phone charger than the delights contained in an extraordinary case coming up at auction on May 1.
Huddersfield Town and Manchester United football legends remembered in auction lots
17 April 2018What do Denis Law and George ‘Bomber’ Brown have in common? The answer is Huddersfield Town, whose miraculous survival in the Premier League seems to have been confirmed after beating Watford 1-0 in the latest round of games.
Gramophone needle tins up at auction show the appeal of niche collecting
16 April 2018By the law of averages, there must be a collector out there for just about any antique. So while gramophone collecting is not that unusual, gramophone needle tins definitely push into the ‘niche’ category.
The SAS – from the man who designed the badge
16 April 2018Even in the hugely popular world of SAS medal collecting, where extraordinary deeds and great stories are taken as read, every now and again a consignment will come along with that ‘wow’ factor.
‘The largest collection of its type on the market in memory’
16 April 2018Prof Antony Charles Thomas (1928- 2016) may have been a “towering figure in British academic archaeology during the second half of the 20th century” but another area of interest is betrayed by his Who’s Who entry.
Second World War Leitz lens clearly a £70 bargain
16 April 2018Bought recently for just £70 in a job lot, this German military-issue Leitz lens below sold for £5500 in Special Auction Services (17.5 buyer’s premium) Photographica sale on March 13. The Hektor 13.5cm f/4.5 lens, offered with an estimate of £4000-6000, sold to the European trade.
The last samurai are caught on camera
16 April 2018The man in the photo clad in armour has the proud but sad and wistful gaze of someone who knows that while he is young in age, he is also part of the old guard. He comes from a disappearing world.
Badges of distinction
16 April 2018Military badges offered at Bosleys provided a good snapshot of a niche collecting area.
Praise for inglorious SAS mission in the Falklands War
16 April 2018A gripping story which, until recently, has remained shrouded in mystery, provides the backdrop for an intriguing test of the market for SAS medals.
Roger Fenton’s pioneering war photography
16 April 2018According to Chris Albury at Cirencester auctioneer Dominic Winter, an “an absolutely A1 example” of Roger Fenton’s (1819-69) famous photo The Valley of the Shadow of Death would make “£50,000-plus at auction, easy peasy”.
‘I should be dead now – it was a decent shot’
16 April 2018A veteran of the Afghanistan war, a sniper who fought on for 90 minutes after being shot in the neck, is selling his medals in a London auction as he returns to civilian life.
More faces lined up for Olympia
16 April 2018A charity which has sponsored an armourer, a gunmaker and many other metalworkers is the very appropriate cause being supported by The Antique Arms Fair at Olympia.
Huge group of photos at auction reflects 19th century collecting craze of the carte de visite
12 April 2018Parents will now be shelling out hundreds of pounds as kids fill up football World Cup sticker albums and negotiate playground swaps in a now time-honoured fashion. Back in the mid-19th century the photo collecting craze was all about the carte de visite, as a May 3 auction underlines.
Red Bed eulogised by Nancy Mitford from Faringdon House up for auction
11 April 2018Nancy Mitford was so enamoured with a particular bed that she wrote about it lovingly in the 1950s.
Movers and shakers: latest arts and antiques appointments
10 April 2018A look at the latest moves in the trade.
John Ward studio pottery trio to set a market test at Chiswick Auctions
09 April 2018When a piece of Hans Coper stoneware made an astonishing £305,000 hammer price from an online bid recently it posed a classic ‘state of the market’ question.