Collectables

On December 27, 1851, the architect Sir Charles Barry (1795-1860) wrote to Augustus Pugin (1812-52) with a progress report on the interior decoration of the Palace of Westminster.

A complete set of the Metellus 'Speculum orbis terrae' publications that featured in ATG No 2399 was not the only lot to record a six-figure result in the June 5, King Street sale of the Mopelia collection of atlases and travel books.

The Postcard Traders Association stages a special loan show of classic and collectable postcards during Art & Antiques For Everyone (July 18-21 at the NEC, Birmingham).

Works produced in the 1940s by Al Hirschfeld figured prominently among the higher priced lots at a June 4 Illustration Art sale held in New York.

Two recent auctions offered a number of 18th and 19th century English novels by authors unfamiliar to many readers but who are nevertheless in demand through their rare surviving works.

Disbound, but complete and still in the original covers, an 1830 first of William North’s Correct Account of all the Cricket Matches Played by the Nottingham Old Cricket Club from 1771 to 1829 came into bat in a recent Staffordshire sale with an estimate of just £50-100, but went on to score £6400 online via thesaleroom.com.

ATG’s calendar of book auctions taking place in the UK and Ireland from July 9-19, 2019.

Racing along to a double-estimate £2400, this tinplate clockwork Tri-ang Magic Midget made by Line Bros in 1933, led the field at the 450-lot toys sale at Gildings (15% buyer’s premium) in Market Harborough on June 24.

A rare variant of the classic Second World War commando knife has sold for 200 times its lower estimate at a North Yorkshire auction.

Two men will appear in court in connection with the 2017 theft of rare books from a west London warehouse.

From the 18th century onwards, the city of Birmingham was a major centre of the British gun-making industry.

Christie’s marathon 12-hour auction of Indian jewellery and works of art from the Al Thani family held in New York included the finest collection of courtly weapons to come to auction in well over a generation.

Published in Venice in November 1494, a copy of Luca Pacioli’s 'Summa de arithmetica, geometria, proporzioni et proporzionalità…' offered in a recent US sale was granted the rare privilege in the book auction world of having a catalogue all of its own.

Beyond the Horizon was the title given to the remarkable Mopelia collection of atlases and travel books offered in a June 5 sale in London.

Top-seller at Richard Edmonds’ (20% buyer’s premium) latest specialist motoring accessories sale was a hanging lightbox proclaiming the virtues of Pratt’s Perfection Spirit.

The story of a woman who bound her chest with sacking and cotton, cut her hair and dyed her skin using furniture polish to get to the Western Front is one of the highlights at Norwich Book Fair.