Collectables

It was, say Timeline Auctions, “probably the most important medieval seal to come to market” and certainly the most important object the firm had ever offered for sale, according to CEO Brett Hammond.

The £40,000 corkscrew with an old London Bridge connection sold by auctioneers Reeman Dansie on November 26 is an extremely rare Victorian patent.

Arguably the most famous historic figure in French history and a princely provenance proved an irresistible combination earlier this month in France when a collection of Napoleonic memorabilia formed by the Grimaldi dynasty of Monaco went under the hammer.

Setting a record for a football medal at £220,000, Stanley Matthews's 1953 F.A. Cup Final winner's medal drew dramatic competition at Graham Budd’s sale of sporting memorabilia earlier this week.

This rare battlefield First World War rose goes under the hammer at Hansons in Etwall, Derbyshire, on November 24.

Sotheby's have made their first foray into the wine retail market by opening their first wine store in Hong Kong.

169 years after Franklin’s ill-fated 1845-48 attempt to find the western exit to the Northwest Passage, his Third Officer's Arctic Medal has come up for sale just as the Canadian government has announced that one of Franklin’s ships has been located.

On March 29, 1833, John Constable gave his daughter Emily a copy of Isaac Watts’s book ‘Songs, Divine and Moral’.

This sixth issue Elizabeth I sovereign (1584-1586) was among seven English 16th and 17th century gold coins stolen from a dealer’s home in Norfolk in August.

Spink are reuniting the first two Victoria Crosses awarded during the First World War as part of a unique exhibition focusing upon the first four months of the conflict.

The big comic story of the year – and one unlikely to be bettered – when two New York specialist dealers, Stephen Fisher and Vincent Zurzolo, paid $3.2m (£1.93m) for a copy of Action Comics No.1. When launched in June, 1938 it had originally cost just 10 cents.

The highest denomination note issued by the Bank of England, this £1000 banknote is a rare survivor of a limited run that was cut short as the Nazis tried to destabilise the British economy.

In May actor Michael Sheen starred in a BBC Wales TV adaptation of ‘Under Milk Wood’ and has taken part in several Dylan Thomas tributes in this centenary year of the poet’s birth.

The First World War centenary has prompted numerous related exhibitions which have rather dominated the calendar this year as you might expect.

The Christopher Foley collection of British commemorative medals will be sold at Salisbury auctioneers Woolley & Wallis on October 16. The sale is the most comprehensive of its type seen for a century or more.

German-made painted wood Noah’s arks, appealing to folk art and toy collectors alike, don’t get much better than this mid-19th century example sold recently at Brightwells in Leominster.

Sold at Sotheby’s for £900,000 last month was a rare copy of a work that marks the beginning of printing in English.

Earlier this month, 100 years to the day since the outbreak of the First World War, Sandham Memorial Chapel near Newbury reopened to the public after restoration.

Pick up your stick and head out for ‘Canemania 2014’, the ninth international cane conference, to be held from September 10-13 in London.

The ‘piece of paper’ waved by Neville Chamberlain on his return from meeting Hitler in 1938 must count as one of the most infamous documents in history.