Collectables

Evidence of the shrewd taste of student entertainments officers at Warwick University back in the Sixties came at Batemans’ (20% buyer’s premium) sale at Stamford in the form of two concert posters.

Extending from the tip of Manhattan as far north as 42nd Street, this large-scale Map of the City of New York of 1850 identifies by means of symbols and a key the city’s churches, schools, hotels, public buildings, parks, cemeteries and other places of interest.

Henry Shaw (1812-87) is a well-known name in the world of antique taxidermy.

An 800-year-old hurdy-gurdy, thought to be the oldest in Europe, features in a collection of 450 musical instruments from a German private museum coming up at auction.

London coins and medals specialist Dix Noonan Webb is changing its management structure.

An Arctic Medal with a provenance indicating it was awarded to a member of the doomed Franklin Expedition which vanished searching for the elusive Northwest Passage has surfaced at a Surrey auction house.

Hermann Historica (23% buyer’s premium) of Munich mounted its customary assault on the arms and armour market with no fewer than seven catalogues covering more than 6000 objects, ranging from ancient Greek helmets to military and other vehicles.

Author and dealer in memorabilia ready for busy year which is centenary of landmark act that gave women in the UK the vote for the first time

The same French collection that brought the fine pair of Boutet pistols to the Thomas Del Mar Sale on December 6 also included a number of later Continental pistols that were rare and certainly unfamiliar to most British collectors.

The New Year is traditionally quiet in the salerooms but the 1800-lot Cheetham collection generated some real excitement at Adam Partridge (18% buyer’s premium) in Macclesfield.

A complete suit of well-matched period armour is rare indeed, so there was no doubting the star of Bonhams’ (25/20/12.5% buyer’s premium) sale in London.

Catalogued as “fresh and beautifully preserved”, a broadside printing of America’s Declaration of Independence authorised by the colony that had led the struggle against British rule, Massachusetts, was the star turn of the first major Americana auction of the year.