Collectables

A Victorian taxidermy case of four New Zealand birds by Rowland Ward of Piccadilly sold for an unexpected £7000 (estimate £100-200) at Windsor Auctions (18% buyer’s premium) in Berkshire.

Bid to €10,000 (£9100) in a timed online sale at Fonsie Mealy (25/20% buyers premium) this summer was a two-volume collection of medical and other receipts compiled by Mrs Mary Leadbeater (1758-1826).

On September 12 Brunk Auctions of Asheville, North Carolina, is holding a single-owner sale comprising the estate of William N Banks Junior from his Georgia property, Bankshaven.

Appropriately enough, the very first lot offered in a sale called Eureka! was one that focused on scientific breakthroughs of the 20th century, was an autograph manuscript of seven pages of annotated design drawings by Thomas Edison relating to his work on light bulbs.

Thousands of items are available to buy from dealers online. Here we pick out one that caught our eye this week.

Though the first human in-socket artificial eyes were created by Venetian glassmakers c.16th century, the earliest evidence of ocular prosthesis was found in a female burial plot in Shahr-I Sokhta, Iran – dating back to 2900-2800 BC.

So-called ‘Black Forest’ carvings don’t get much better than this walking stick stand modelled as a seated hound next to a tree stump offered by Hannam’s (23% buyer’s premium) in Selborne, Hampshire.

Manuscript was brought to Italy from Constantinople and later printed in Vicenza

ATG’s calendar of book auctions taking place in the UK and Ireland from September 8-19, 2020.

This Machine Man lithographed tinplate Japanese battery powered robot is the rarest of the post war group of so called ‘Gang of Five’ robots made by Masudaya.

MADAM – I hope your readers can help me track down a few items. I am trying to find some old Wedgwood Flaxman chess pieces from about 1825-70. I have been trying to complete this set for more than 40 years.

It is not unusual to see Victoria Crosses making huge sums at auction, but last week the man who made these medals of gallantry was the one in the spotlight.

Robert Morrison, a protestant missionary, pioneer sinologist and author of several works on the Chinese language as well as a translator, has been called the ‘Father of Anglo-Chinese Literature’.

'Firsts, London’s Rare Book Fair' has announced a second digital staging to take place this month.

This Gauge II steam-powered locomotive below was made by Schoenner, the Nüremberg toymaker operating founded by Jean Schoenner in 1875.

Mathematical work makes £300,000 in auction where composers also feature heavily

This sailor’s walking cane below displays many elements of the scrimshander’s art: a whalebone shaft carved with spiral fluting, collars inlaid with shell from the hawksbill turtle and a handle carved as a dove from the tooth of a sperm whale.

ATG’s calendar of book auctions taking place in the UK and Ireland from September 1-16, 2020.