Collectables

Veteran antique arms and armour specialist David Williams is joining the Olympia Auctions team as senior consultant.

A watercolour of a dandelion attributed to Beatrix Potter estimated at £200-300 ended up selling at a hammer price of £2600.

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

A round-up of art and antiques news from the previous seven days, including the University of Leeds making available the earliest-known English book about cheese

Several middle-market pocket globes have appeared at regional salerooms recently – here is a selection

As this year commemorates VE and VJ days, there are likely to be even more collectors and dealers than usual converging on the first of 2025’s biannual Britannia Medal Fairs on Sunday, May 11.

From Pokémon trading cards to retro gaming consoles, the growing market in modern collectables is bringing new buyers and consignors to the market – and providing new business opportunities

More people than ever are getting hooked on angling, says the Angling Trust which reported that in 2023-24 as a result of participation events more than 43,000 people tried fishing for the first time.

The rise in modern collectables at auction has enabled one relative newcomer to prosper.

Fragment found in an attic with receipt for £25 now sells for £39,000 hammer price

A letter from Robert Falcon Scott – aka Scott of the Antarctic – came up for sale at Canterbury Auction Galleries (20% buyer’s premium) on April 11-14.

This rare playbill on silk printed in the Arctic in 1852 sold for £4400 at a recent sale at Keys (25% buyer’s premium) in Aylsham.

Among the more extraordinary forms of French furniture is the ‘machine pneumatique’ – a device used in the Age of Enlightenment to demonstrate the mysterious properties of the vacuum or ‘the energy of the nothingness’.

I was very sorry to read about the death of ATG's antiquarian books columnist Ian McKay (Obituary, ATG No 2689). He was a good guy and occasional visitor here.