Collectables

Contrasting contraptions both sell for strong five-figure sums in salerooms north and south

It has been estimated there are between 500 and 1000 different types of marble-in-neck mineral water bottles based on the famous 1872 patent by Hiram Codd.

While two early Märklin carousels went round and round, the bids at Hohenstaufen (24.5% buyer’s premium) in Göppingen went up and up.

The Wurlitzer Company was founded in the US in 1856 and the Centennial 2000 jukebox model was created to commemorate the centenary anniversary.

A recent sale at Halls (24% buyer’s premium) in Shrewsbury included an exceptional Swiss music box: a Sublime Harmony orchestral music box by George Baker & Co, Geneva.

A first edition of Agatha Christie’s Five Little Pigs published by The Crime Club (Collins), London 1942, was consigned to Wessex Auction Rooms (24% buyer’s premium) by the family of Phyllis Rice, housekeeper to the author at Greenway House.

Our regular listing of books and works on paper sales

An extremely rare survival from the nine-day reign of Lady Jane Grey, one of the more dramatic episodes in English history, came to market on February 25.

French inventor Charles-Émile Reynaud (1844-1918) was responsible for the first projected animated films.

Geoffrey Bond, who runs The Geoffrey Bond Consultancy, has had an extensive career spanning law, business, heritage, TV, radio and latterly publishing.

The 1690 Utrecht edition of Suetonius Caius Tranquillus’ Opera, “with Samuel Pitiscus’s seminal commentary, was a landmark in classical scholarship and perfectly reflects Sir William Hamilton’s deep antiquarian interests, particularly in Roman history”.

All of the first half-a-dozen issues of Viz comic are rarities – each penned by teenager Chris Donald from his bedroom in his parents’ Jesmond, Newcastle, home with help from his brother Simon and friend Jim Brownlow.

What is being promoted as “perhaps the most significant private collection of British comics ever assembled” is coming to market with two separate auction houses involved.

Pristine first editions from sought-after authors or documents written by the luminaries of times past are usually the ones that command the greatest attention at book auctions.

Forget Paddington Bear. Think Winnie-the-Pooh “I am a bear of very little brain…”, whose 100th anniversary this year celebrates the first outing of the gentle bear and his beloved friends including the “small and anxious” Piglet.

Fifty years ago a now little-known comic launched that spawned a much more successful title still going strong