Collectables

Henry VIII, King of England 1509-47 was not a happy man on July 14, 1539, it seems.

Arch Books of Richmond, southwest London, recently sold the personal expedition copy of Fridtjof Nansen’s Fram over Polhavet [Farthest North] (1897), owned and signed by fellow Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen (1872-1928).

A Queen Anne olivewood oyster, holly and walnut cabinet on stand offered by Dreweatts (27/26% buyer’s premium) in Newbury was among a number of lots sold recently showing the commercial boost that royal provenance can provide.

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

With only one key, the Diskret, which was offered at a recent sale at Auction Team Breker (21.8% buyer’s premium), did not conform to the conventional layout of a typewriter.

This copy of The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments and the Apocrypha (Cambridge: at the University Press, 1961) is signed in ink by Queen Elizabeth II on a mounted presentation plate, dated Christmas 1961.

Royal costumes and fashion have long been a source of fascination.

The unknown maker of this commemorative creamware mug produced for the coronation of King George IV seems to have been in a rush.

Collection of gallery owner and exhibition organiser includes letters from the likes of Bacon and Hockney

Collectors with a keen eye for rarities saw to it that unusual pieces of Märklin offered by Antico Mondo (21.5% buyer’s premium) in Bornheim went for multiples of their estimates.

Two of London’s salerooms sold Georgian pocket globes on March 12. Both hammered well above what proved modest estimates.

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

The legend of author Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) is forever linked with sport fishing.

Two years after a Wiltshire auction house set a record for Titanic memorabilia with “the watch recovered from the body of John Jacob Astor”, another timekeeper making precisely the same claim is coming to market.

The Mickey and Minnie Mouse motorcycle made by Tippco, c.1932, is the most desirable of all the German tinplate clockwork toys from the immediate pre-war period.

I was so glad to see the front page photo in ATG No 2738 [‘Bidders Pipe Up For Treen’].

Lake District cabinetmaker and woodcarver Ernest John Oldcorn trained at Gillows of Lancaster but he found his niche after joining the Arthur W Simpson workshop.

Magic books library reflects obsession of collector who prized exceptionally clean examples

An original Georg Dionysius Ehret illustration of a magnolia blossom hammered for $330,000 (£242,000) at Arader Galleries (20% buyer’s premium) on February 7 in New York.