Collectables

From the first unwieldy wet-plate models of the 19th century to the dawn of digital technology, the changing face of cameras can make for a fascinating collection.

Started by Nicolette Tomkinson, head of the posters department at Christie’s South Kensington, 15 years ago, the only dedicated ski poster sale in the UK has successfully mastered a small but lucrative field.

An important private collection of Beatrix Potter books, manuscripts, artwork, photographs, figurines and collectables is being offered for sale at Bloomsbury Auctions on February 27.

Stack’s Bowers Galleries of Irvine, California, have set a new global auction record for a coin at a hammer price of $8.525m (£5.61m).

The handwritten draft of one of John Betjeman’s best-known poems, ‘The Arrest of Oscar Wilde at the Cadogan Hotel’, is just one of the gems in the next tranche of the Roy Davids Collection to appear at Bonhams Bond Street.

A group of hitherto unknown 19th century documents has come to light revealing illegal trafficking of Chinese people to Latin America where they were forced into slavery.

Medals and other material relating to George William Hutson, a British athlete who served in the First World War, will be offered for sale at Peacocks on February 1 in Bedford.

A rare American coin from a schoolboy’s coin collection was knocked down at auction for £185,000 at Salisbury saleroom Woolley & Wallis this week.

These figures representing The Beatles were manufactured by Subbuteo, the name made famous by the series of table-top games mainly concerning football but also other types of sport.

When in 1903 the Marconi Wireless Company began a public demonstration of its systems, an unwelcome message began to appear via the Morse printer: “There was a young man from Italy, who diddled the public so prettily…”

An early photographic album which has sold for a record-breaking £290,000 came into the hands of its first owner 140 years ago as a prize – for winning a pigeon-shooting competition.

A rare Holtzapffel & Company rose engine lathe turned a few heads at Skinner’s recent Science, Technology and Clocks sale to take $190,000 (£124,185) as the top lot of the day.

Gorringes have set what is thought to be a record price for a coin in the UK provinces, taking £240,000 for a gold Queen Anne Vigo Five Guineas of 1703 at their sale in Lewes last month.

This American half-cent coin, dated 1796, will be auctioned in Woolley & Wallis’ Salisbury auction rooms on January 22 with an estimate of £25,000-30,000.

This classic red two-seater 1954 MG TF 1500 Roadster will be auctioned at Fieldings Auctioneers in Stourbridge on January 12.

Included in George Kidner’s sale in Lymington, Hampshire on January 10, is this 19th century Swiss enamelled musical bird box decorated with landscape scenes.

At first glance all looks well in this Edwardian garden party scene illustrated on the lid of a Huntley & Palmers biscuit tin. But is that a naked couple in the bushes at the back of the picture?

A gold bullion dealer who has opened a chain of outlets in shopping centres across Britain is aiming to create a whole new generation of coin collectors among Britain’s youth.

When it comes to rock and pop memorabilia, and The Beatles in particular, if the provenance is not only right but of the first magnitude, prices can soar.

Designed for the London, Midland and Scottish Railway, a 1928 poster by Cassandre (1901-68) sold at Swann Auction Galleries of New York for what is believed to be a record for the sought-after poster designer at auction.