Collectables

One of the highlights of Old Toy Soldier Auctions’ spring sale from May 18-19 in Pittsburgh will be this rare Britains Black Watch boxed parade set with piper, No 449.

Troubling subjects to today’s society as they may be, promotional materials for tobacco, alcohol, chocolates and petrol from the 19th and early 20th centuries remain a popular choice for collectors.

The pictorial spread and designer binding shown here feature in a work by the celebrated French-Swiss architect and designer, Le Corbusier.

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

This 9in (23cm) high tinplate toy, which comes with three interchangeable faces, is by the German firm of Distler.

A classic SAS beige beret from the Second World War has sold for what is believed to be a record-breaking £17,500 hammer price.

Among the 700-plus lots of posters included in Potter & Potter’s auction in Chicago on May 22 will be a 1913 French example advertising Terrot bicycles.

An 1831, third (first illustrated) edition of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, a version that not only contained a new introduction but added a new chapter to that famous work, sold for £2800 in a Norfolk sale.

ATG’s calendar of book auctions taking place in the UK and Ireland from May 14-25, 2019.

Our weekly selection from salerooms and dealerships.

Billed as the first music to be both composed and printed in the New World, Juan Navarro’s setting of '…Quatuor passions Christi' was one of several items of Mexican origin to do well in a recent Americana sale.

Pitched at £15,000-25,000, a rare 16th century French work made its lower estimate at Mellors & Kirk (20% buyer’s premium).

A manuscript for Rebecca and a favourite typewriter were among the top lots in a collection of objects and ephemera once owned by author and playwright Daphne du Maurier (1907-89) sold at Rowley’s in Ely (22.5% buyer’s premium).

A flying log book belonging to one of the female pilots of the Air Training Auxiliary (ATA) who became famous for ferrying planes in the Second World War has been sold at Kent saleroom C&T.

ATG’s calendar of book auctions taking place in the UK and Ireland from May 8-15, 2019.

Plague water is one of the more striking entries in a now worn but finely bound volume of cookery and medical recipes sold recently in London.