Collectables

“During the 1890s, when bicycles were one of the most advertised products in the poster world, the fantastic concept that a bicycle was powerful enough to propel a rider into space was used surprisingly often.”

Freedom Auction Company (25% buyer’s premium) in Sarasota, Florida, conducts regular sales of circus memorabilia.

A week after Christie’s (27/22% buyer’s premium) sold a first edition of Wuthering Heights for a record £950,000 hammer (see ATG No 2751), the King Street auction house’s sale of Valuable Books and Manuscripts including Cartography set a new record for a UK various-owner book sale at £10m hammer.

A group of four original lithograph posters advertising exhibitions of the Viennese Secession was well received at Karl & Faber (27% buyer’s premium) in Munich.

Fortunino Matania (1881-1963) is renowned for his realistic depictions of the First World War, visiting the front line to see the scenes for himself, and historical and royal subjects.

A ‘real tennis’ racquet dating from the reign of King Louis XV of France, used by the first of the great players whose achievements are on record, is being served up at auction.

After moving to a farm at Cropton, North Yorkshire, over the next 25 years Ian David Smith assembled an extensive private collection of horse-drawn vehicles and associated items.

This bespoke 19th century fairground steam-powered confectioner’s vendor cart, to make ice cream and popcorn, tempted bidders at John Rolfe (20% buyer’s premium) in Tetbury, Gloucestershire.

A letter by Carl Linnaeus (1707-78), father of modern botany and taxonomy, has set an auction record in his native Sweden.

Bertoia Auctions (25% buyer’s premium) did not hold back when discussing a Bing gauge 4 live steam toy locomotive with tender.

Dedicated anniversary sale devoted to Robert Thompson centres on three private collections

One of the most poignant images in suffrage historian and dealer Elizabeth Crawford’s latest book, 'The British Women’s Suffrage Movement in 100 Objects', is a lily carried by Agnes Kelly at the funeral in 1913 of Emily Wilding Davison – who famously was killed as she stepped in front of the king’s horse on Derby Day that year.

Our regular listing of UK and Irish books and works on paper sales

Not a first edition of the horror classic but the version printed five years later is also sought after

The He-Man film out now has struggled at the box office but the character in a smaller form amazed saleroom bidders.