Collectables

Scientific instruments and photographica specialist Flints Auctions has opened new premises and is launching a fresh type of sale.

Rescued from a skip, a rusting British enamel advertising sign sold for £10,400 (plus 24% buyer’s premium) at auction in Carmarthen.

Peninsular War medals featuring 13 or 14 clasps – showing how many actions the recipient fought in – are impressive enough in themselves. But three of them awarded to brothers who served in the same regiment, offered as a single lot at auction, takes demand to a different level.

A superb copy of Henry Hexham’s 'Principles of the Art Militarie' of 1637 was last seen at Sotheby’s in April 1919, as part of the library of the Earl of Chesterfield.

Bid just short of the high estimate to sell at £56,000 in a Dominic Winter (20% buyer’s premium) sale was a rare complete set in 25 original parts of John Gould’s 'Monograph of the Trochilidae, or Family of Humming Birds' of 1849-61.

Australasia provided the talking points and two main buyers at the recent Tennants (20% buyer’s premium) specialist sale in the Yorkshire Dales.

As in its September auction, a double-page Frank Bellamy artwork featuring ‘Heros the Spartan’ proved a star turn in the latest Comic Book Auctions (19% buyer’s premium) online sale on thesaleroom.com.

ATG’s calendar of book auctions taking place in the UK and Ireland from January 7-18, 2020.

Thousands of items are available to buy from dealers online. Here we pick out one that caught our eye this week.

Among the selection of instructional games and pastimes featured at Forum Auctions (25/12/12% buyer’s premium) on November 21 two of the more successful lots were published by Edward Wallis.

Our regular listing of British and Irish book auctions.

A copy of the 1892 Olympic Manifesto made an auction record for sports memorabilia when it was hammered down for $7.5m (£5.73m).

Holding for 22 years the Blue Riband for the fastest Atlantic crossing, the great Cunard liner RMS Mauretania is a magical name for collectors of maritime memorabilia.

Michael Faraday’s laboratory notebook from 1851 includes a series of diagrams illustrating what he called ‘magnetic lines of force’ – the magnetic field lines that are central to the study of electromagnetism and electrochemistry.

Egypt views stand out among a selection also involving many other worldwide works

Bid to £3000 at Chiswick Auctions (25% buyer’s premium) on November 20 was a rare and early game.