Latest News Articles by Tom Derbyshire
Going, going, gone with a bang: early Christmas crackers at auction
06 March 2026A decade ago V&A curators used an X-ray to discover what was inside a vintage Christmas cracker made in the 1920s by the Tom Smith company without having to actually pull it. This revealed a small chocolate.
Interested in collecting jukeboxes? Give it a Wurlitzer
06 March 2026The Wurlitzer Company was founded in the US in 1856 and the Centennial 2000 jukebox model was created to commemorate the centenary anniversary.
Best wishes to housekeeper Phyllis from Agatha Christie
06 March 2026A first edition of Agatha Christie’s Five Little Pigs published by The Crime Club (Collins), London 1942, was consigned to Wessex Auction Rooms (24% buyer’s premium) by the family of Phyllis Rice, housekeeper to the author at Greenway House.
Rare Praxinoscope combining moving images and music flies over estimate at Plymouth auction
27 February 2026French inventor Charles-Émile Reynaud (1844-1918) was responsible for the first projected animated films.
A 1690 work that brings Nelson, Naples, Hamiltons and a scandalous affair to mind
27 February 2026The 1690 Utrecht edition of Suetonius Caius Tranquillus’ Opera, “with Samuel Pitiscus’s seminal commentary, was a landmark in classical scholarship and perfectly reflects Sir William Hamilton’s deep antiquarian interests, particularly in Roman history”.
Get a Viz No 1 and a free ice cream too
27 February 2026All of the first half-a-dozen issues of Viz comic are rarities – each penned by teenager Chris Donald from his bedroom in his parents’ Jesmond, Newcastle, home with help from his brother Simon and friend Jim Brownlow.
'Perhaps the most significant private collection of British comics ever assembled'
27 February 2026What is being promoted as “perhaps the most significant private collection of British comics ever assembled” is coming to market with two separate auction houses involved.
Where the 2000AD action starts – the story of the short lived but inspirational predecessor comic
27 February 2026Fifty years ago a now little-known comic launched that spawned a much more successful title still going strong
This could be a ‘transformational era in comic collecting’ says US auction house
27 February 2026Records continue to tumble in the vibrant US market. Hardly a week goes by without another new marker being established as comics thrive in a remarkably buoyant collectables collecting scene, or sought-after high-grade copies attract rocketing prices.
AA Milne letters to friends come to market for the first time
27 February 2026A collection of nine letters from Winnie the Pooh author AA Milne sold at Derbyshire saleroom Irita Marriott (24% buyer’s premium) had been passed down through the family of Vincent Seligman and his wife Barbara, who were lifelong friends of the author.
Now it’s the 1973 Ashbourne Royal Shrovetide Football coming into play...
20 February 2026In the last ATG (No 2731) we featured an Ashbourne Royal Shrovetide Football sold on January 22 at Truro Auction Centre for £4200 and mentioned others sold at Hansons in 2022.
Big Top brings big prices: circus memorabilia posters put in a super performance
20 February 2026Judging by recent auctions, once live acts in the circus are now thrilling eager collectors via memorabilia.
First Discworld book works its magic in Lincolnshire
20 February 2026Book dealers and auction houses are all saying the same thing about fantasy and sci-fi novels: once derided as not serious objects of desire, they are now eagerly sought after by collectors and achieving really big prices.
A collector not short of interests, from autograph hunting to wrestling and speedway
20 February 2026John Short, a well-known collector in the Bristol area, amassed over 50,000 autographs in his lifetime. He began obtaining signatures at stage doors in the 1960s right up until his death in 2022.
Specimen book for The Curwen Press is one of the joys from newspaper art critic’s packed home
20 February 2026According to an article in The Times ahead of the estate sale of the paper’s former theatre, film and art critic John Russell Taylor (1935-2025), the west London flat where he lived was crammed not only with artworks but also 20,000 books.
Elizabethan table stands out in Fitzsimmons sale
13 February 2026Paul Fitzsimmons of Marhamchurch Antiques in Bovey Tracey, Devon, is one of the foremost early English oak specialists in the UK, with over 30 years of experience in the trade.