Collectables

Penguin patties, seal cutlets and roast reindeer – and lots of whisky – were on the menu for a famous meal which was followed by ‘Sledges at 12.30’.

The two sewing boxes modelled as houses shown below were made for different markets but both had strong appeal to UK collectors.

Russian literary firsts and related manuscripts were the focus of one of the many major sales held in the UK, Europe and the US at the year’s end.

Featuring 17 lithographed illustrations by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, one of 100 special copies of Gustave Geoffroy’s 1894 homage to the celebrated singer, actress and, in later years, writer, Yvette Guilbert – all of which were signed by the chanteuse – is shown here.

The highlight of the specialist sale of firearms and militaria held by Pook & Pook (22% buyer’s premium) in Downingtown, Pennsylvania, on November 17 was this matched pair of 18th century flintlock pistols.

ATG’s calendar of book auctions taking place in the UK and Ireland from December 18-January 17, 2018.

Packed with job lots in many categories, the book section of a three-day antiques auction held at Mitchells (20% buyer’s premium) in the Cumbrian market town of Cockermouth heralded an intent to make such sales a regular feature.

‘The Fall of the House of Usher’, ‘The Murders in the Rue Morgue’, ‘The Mystery of the Marie Roget’ and ‘The Purloined Letter’ are among now famous works that are to be found in the newly discovered first issue copy of Edgar Allan Poe’s Tales shown below.

Believed to have been in the same family since new, a rare 19th century Jules Steiner doll and her trunk of clothes demolished the estimate at a wide-ranging sale at Lawrences (22% buyer’s premium) at Crewkerne on November 16.

Bram van der Stok MBE was not only the most decorated aviator in Dutch history and one of just three men to successfully flee POW Camp Stalag Luft III in the ‘Great Escape’, but also a proud member of the Caterpillar Club.

A toy engine offered at North Yorkshire saleroom Tennants (20% buyer’s premium) sold for what is thought to be a new world record for a Hornby Dublo locomotive.

This very rare bear shown below made a very high price for such a small fellow – just 14cm (5½in) high.

Written just a year before his death in 1955, a famous two-page letter in which Albert Einstein put down his thoughts on religion, his Jewish identity and his own search for the meaning of life sold for $2.4m (£1.89m) in a New York auction on December 4.

Literary high spots of a Bonhams (25/10/12% buyer’s premium) sale of November 27 included a three-volume, 1813 first of Jane Austen’s 'Pride and Prejudice'.