Collectables

The term ‘collectables’ (or collectibles) encompasses a vast range of items in fields as diverse as arms, armour and militaria, bank notes, cameras, coins, entertainment and sporting memorabilia, stamps, taxidermy, wines and writing equipment.

Some collectables are antiques, others are classed as retro, vintage or curios but all are of value to the collector. In any of these fields, buyers seek out rarities and items with specific associations.

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Lancer lots charge into auctions

16 March 2020

The Crimea medal awarded to one of only two officers taken prisoner by the Russians during the calamitous Charge of the Light Brigade in 1854 sold for £14,000 at London saleroom Dix Noonan Webb (25% buyer’s premium).

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Subbuteo space oddity soars in Essex saleroom

16 March 2020

Among the rarest of all Subbuteo games invented and manufactured by Peter Adolph in Tunbridge Wells are those without a sporting theme.

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Four-figure bids for a Victorian des res in miniature

16 March 2020

The first specialist sale of dolls and dolls’ houses at Lacy Scott & Knight (20% buyer’s premium) of Bury St Edmunds was based mainly around a single collection.

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Bosleys moves auction from Marlow to Staffordshire and launches new sale format

16 March 2020

Bosleys has launched a new format for its auctions, including a move from Marlow to Staffordshire.

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Rev Garner: a man of war and peace

16 March 2020

The Church of England was Geoffrey Garner’s vocation in life – collecting military badges his hobby

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SAS trooper's collection: a special force of the saleroom

16 March 2020

The best-seller lists these days will always include a good number of explosive memoirs written by special forces veterans and their heroic stories usually also mean high interest at auction.

British and Irish book auctions: March 11-31, 2020

16 March 2020

ATG’s calendar of book auctions taking place in the UK and Ireland from March 11-31, 2020.

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Militaria: A woman's fight to serve

16 March 2020

Before British female nurses could even help with the wounded they faced a battle to be accepted, as the story behind a medal winner reveals.

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Bountiful barn find of Great War interest

16 March 2020

“Something awful. Never witnessed anything like it before. After a bombardment of a week the Germans mounted their own trenches and the infantry reckon that every German had a machine gun…”

Taxidermy penguin

Taxidermy penguin from Scott’s doomed Antarctica expedition attracts attention at Sworders

11 March 2020

A taxidermy Adélie penguin collected by scientists during the Terra Nova Antarctic Expedition from 1910-1913 drew strong interest at an auction in Essex this week.

Sony-Nintendo PlayStation gaming console

‘A pivotal piece of video game history’: PlayStation prototype from failed Sony-Nintendo partnership draws huge bidding in Texas auction

11 March 2020

A prototype of the PlayStation has sold for $300,000 at auction in Texas. The 28-year-old gaming console, offered by Heritage Auctions as part of a sale in Dallas this week is thought to be the sole survivor from 200 made during a failed joint-venture between Sony and Nintendo in c.1992.

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New discovery of coin marking the end of silver offered at Baldwin’s

09 March 2020

As the Standard Catalogue of British Coins points out, this tiny denomination, the George VI silver threepence dated 1945 , essentially marks the end of the silver coinage and the beginning of modern coins made of copper-nickel and brass.

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Notorious female pirates inspired later authors

09 March 2020

Shown below is a plate from A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most Notorious Pyrates… sold at Lyon & Turnbull (25% buyer’s premium) on February 19

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Mucha maidens are saleroom gems

09 March 2020

A highlight of the first sale of this year held by Poster Auctions International (20% buyer’s premium) in New York on February 23 was a rare 1902 set of four poster panels designed by Alphonse Mucha.

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Cumbrian archive offered at auction recalls D-Day’s floating harbours

09 March 2020

An historic archive belonging to the engineer who oversaw the design of the Mulberry Harbours in the Second World War comes to auction in Cumbria later this month.

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Middle Eastern medical manuscript proves to be £70,000 saleroom cure

09 March 2020

Said to date from the 12th-14th century, an incomplete and dampstained Middle Eastern medical manuscript sold for £70,000 at Bellmans (22% buyer’s premium) on February 22.

British and Irish book auctions: March 10-21, 2020

09 March 2020

Our regular listing of British and Irish book auctions.

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BOOKS AND WORKS ON PAPER: Grim toll of plagues up to 1666

09 March 2020

List of deaths is timely reminder that outbreaks are nothing new

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Solid interest at Forum Auctions for Anthony Askham leaves

09 March 2020

Very much the surprise of an online sale held by Forum Auctions (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) was a lot presenting incomplete fragments of 'An Almanacke and Prognosticatyon'… for the year 1552.

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Rare early Biggles paperback flies again at Norfolk sale

09 March 2020

An unexpected star turn of a recent Norfolk sale was a job lot of works from the library of the late Ron Fiske of Morningthorpe Manor, an East Anglian collector whose books a Norfolk auction house first started dispersing a few years years ago.

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