Collectables

Multi-estimate sums are not confined to Chinese works of art.

Spider-Man became the most expensive comic book superhero in a Heritage (20% buyer’s premium) sale this autumn.

Poster market thought to be the first such specialist UK event will return for a second instalment

If you wanted to keep the strings of a tennis racket taut, you could do with a tennis racket press – a device consisting of a frame closed by a spring mechanism.

Top lot in a sale held by Mallams (25% buyer’s premium) of Oxford was a 1719-20, first edition set of 'The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe…', 'The Farther Adventures…' and 'The Serious Reflections…' in later but very smart bindings of red morocco gilt by Francis Bedford of London.

Before match programmes grew into the glossy mini-magazines of today they were relatively simple affairs – most just a single sheet printed on both sides.

Stan Anderson (1934-2018) was a north-eastern football stalwart playing as captain for a hat-trick of local clubs.

Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions.

A group of “rare and interesting” 20th century cycling ephemera relating primarily to the Olympic Games offered by Catherine Southon (20% buyer’s premium) came from the collection of cycling journalist David Taylor (1937-2020).

A humble table tennis bat bought at a car boot sale in Surrey for £3.50 served up a surprise at Hansons’ (25% buyer’s premium) London monthly auction on September 25.

A silver tea service presented to Sir Stanley Matthews (1915-2000) to mark his record England cap has been sold by a Hampshire dealer.

‘I have laid aside business and gone a’fishing,’ said Izaak Walton in 'The Compleat Angler', a celebration of the art and spirit of fishing first published in 1653.

Relating to perhaps the most famous of all compositions for the lute, a version of John Dowland’s 'Lachrimae pavane' proved a major attraction in a music sale held by Sotheby’s (26/20/13.9% buyer’s premium).

Derbyshire auction house Hansons (25% buyer’s premium) sold memorabilia this summer worn by two Manchester United favourites of different eras: George Best and David Beckham.

For just a few short days in October, the white-walled contemporary space of the Saatchi Gallery was transformed into a veritable feast of rare and sought-after first-edition books, prints and posters.

An England blue velvet and silver braid cap awarded to Sir Alfred Ramsey sold for a mid-estimate £3400 at Lacy Scott & Knight (22.5% buyer’s premium) in Bury St Edmunds.

Maurice Setters (1936-2020) is perhaps best known to many football fans as the assistant to Jack Charlton as Republic of Ireland enjoyed success in the 1980s-90s.

A great many of the lots that brought prices in the £1000-10,000 range in a recent Cheltenham sale were multiples of varying size – some running to as many as a hundred volumes – but noted here are a couple with that same Spetchley Park provenance that can be more precisely defined.

A painting of a pugilist will now be researched by the dealer who bought it at auction thanks to his collecting fascination with the early days of the sport

A pair of early 19th century Staffordshire pearlware figures modelled after bare-knuckle boxers Tom Cribb and Tom Molineaux who fought for a ‘world title’ of sorts is estimated at £3000-5000 in Tennants’ Autumn Fine Sale on November 13 in Leyburn.