Collectables

Rare specimen banknotes from around the world donated to a British Heart Foundation (BHF) shop in Edinburgh have raised £85,860 in total at auction to help fund research.

This 17th century Irish marriage locket was probably a gift from Robert Coppinger to his new wife Margarett in 1660.

One of the biggest attractions at the Exposition Universelle, held in Paris in 1878, was Le Grand Ballon Captif, a huge tethered balloon, constructed by Baptiste Henri Jacques Giffard, a pioneer of airship travel.

Among the most eagerly contested lots in the Historical Documents, Autographs and Ephemera sale at Spink (22.5% buyer’s premium) in London was one including two letters written by a sailor while aboard HMS Northumberland when she carried Napoleon Bonaparte into exile in 1815.

Copy of revised 1633 edition of Gerard’s famous botanical work The Herball stands out in west London

A rare scissorwork diorama depicting Napoleon captive on St Helena was among the curios included in Sworders’ (25% buyer’s premium) latest Out of the Ordinary sale.

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

The dealer in art and vintage photography Pierre Spake has died at the age of 72. For the past year he had been undergoing treatment for cancer.

A late 19th century musical automaton made during the Golden Age of French automata emerged from a Staffordshire house clearance to take £3200 at Richard Winterton (22% buyer’s premium).

An early ceramic work by Otto Lindig was one of the stars at a recent sale at Mehlis (24% buyer’s premium) in Plauen.

A Märklin tinplate ocean liner toy ship from c.1905-12 estimated at £250-300 steamed away on sale day in Nottingham at a hammer price of £24,000.

A rare 14th century gold coin, an Edward III leopard that was in circulation for just seven months, has been hammered down for a mid-estimate £70,000.

The strongest claimant to the title of world’s first cigarette card returned to the rostrum at a recent sale held at Sportingold in Barnsley.

Collector built friendships all over the world when amassing a record of two centuries of mining equipment

Bumper auction includes set of Pooh books and 58 lots of modern firsts from a single vendor

A lock of hair reputed to belong to Catherine Parr – Henry VIII’s sixth and final wife – drew a good deal of interest at Greenslade Taylor Hunt (19.5% buyer’s premium) in North Petherton, Somerset.

Vending machine and music box could once be found on railway station platforms to serve passengers

Since 1925 the Deutsches Museum in Munich has been exhibiting a complex and highly decorated 18th century calculating machine that bears the inscription Braun Invenit – Vayringe Fecit.