Collectables

Auction marking German firm Reiss & Sohn’s 50th anniversary included earthly and heavenly delights

Karen and Paul Rennie of Rennies Seaside Modern in Folkestone are well-known collector/dealers in Modern British design.

The annual York River Art Market is running every Saturday from June 26 to the end of August with 30-plus artists and designers selling their work.

An Americana sale held by Swann (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) was led at $55,000 (£39,855) by an 1830, Palmyra first of 'The Book of Mormon'.

An Illustration Art sale held in Dallas by Heritage (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) included a classic EH Shepard Winnie-the-Pooh work.

Discovered lying unrecognised on a bookcase in a Sussex cottage, a unique edition of Thomas Gray’s Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard will be offered at Gorringe’s this month with a £100,000-150,000 estimate.

The stern face, luxurious moustache and pointing finger are instantly familiar – but the message below Kitchener’s intense gaze not so.

Two impressive Battle of Britain medal groups offered a day apart at separate auctions both took six-figure sums.

A recent sale at Gildings (20% buyer’s premium) of Market Harborough included a number of medals of historical interest.

Trying to set a water-speed record is one of sport’s most hazardous competitions – with a high fatality rate as a result.

Based on a slightly earlier American original called The Landlords Game, this example of Brer Fox an’ Brer Rabbit dates to 1913.

Sold for $42,500 (£30,795) was a very appealing Einstein lot that offered a short but amusing letter dating from November 1928 and a signed photo-portrait.

The Travellers Tour through the United States of 1822 was once described as the first American board game.

Captain EF Hunter’s 'Map of Arabia and The Persian Gulf' was one of the lots fetching sums considerably in advance of what looked to be quite modest estimates in an Oxford book sale.

A combination cigarette case and lighter given to Elvis Presley by the king of Thailand sold for six times its top estimate.

Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions.

Auction house Prunier in Louviers, Normandy, has a long tradition of holding sales of Haute Epoque or early works of art.