Collectables

Our regular listing of UK and Irish books and works on paper sales

The first clockwork robot with a walking action appeared at Hartleys (20% buyer’s premium) in Ilkley, West Yorkshire, on April 5.

This skeleton of an extinct cave bear (Ursus spelaeus) sold for £17,000 in Tennants’ (24% buyer’s premium) Natural History and Taxidermy Sale.

Event generates decent sales and a lively atmosphere during a busy weekend overall for collectors and dealers

Talk of ‘mammoth’ sales usually entails a sizeable selection of lots.

The first part of an auction series offering a remarkable array of coins buried in Europe for over 50 years to prevent them from being looted during Nazi invasion kicked off with a focus on British and colonial milled coins from Charles II to George V.

Stelios Galatopoulos (1932-2022) was a respected Greek music critic (Cypriot-born) who was based in London.

A very early enamel map of the London Underground will be unveiled at a specialist fair next month.

Like Toulouse Lautrec, Ramon Casas y Carbo (1866-1932) was not only an avant-garde artist but a master poster maker and graphic designer.

Shown here is a 1st Pattern Fairbairn Sykes fighting knife by Wilkinson, London that belonged to Major Charles George Gibson ‘Pat’ Riley DCM (1915-99), one of the founding members of ‘L’ Detachment, SAS Brigade in 1941.

Chiswick Auctions (26% buyer’s premium) held a sale titled The Art of Nature – a themed catalogue of art and antiques based on the natural world.

The Barbarians jersey worn by JPR Williams (1949-2024) in one of rugby union’s most famous matches sold at Rogers Jones (22% buyer’s premium) for £27,500 on April 10.

A postcard letter written by a survivor of the Titanic disaster sold for £230,000 (£300,000 with premium included) at Henry Aldridge & Son last month – a record for a letter related to the disaster.

Woolley & Wallis is offering what it hails as a collection of military medals given to “one of Britain’s most distinguished soldiers of the 20th century”.

With golfers looking forward to the US Open in June and the British Open in July, as well as the Wimbledon Tennis Championships running for two weeks from June 30, these sports are about to hit the headlines.

One-off football ‘super cup’ style ties are nothing new, as a very much in demand programme offered at Telford saleroom Mullock Jones (20.5% buyer’s premium) demonstrated.

Some ‘prisoner of war’ productions are now thought to have been made by skilled craftsmen

Now celebrating on-the-field success thanks to a 1-0 victory against Manchester United in the Europa League final on May 21, Spurs also came top in the saleroom seven days earlier.