Toovey's

The Komai family of sword makers and armourers were among the many Japanese metalworkers courting a new clientele during the Meiji period (1868-1912).

Estimated at £800-1200, this Regency giltwood and ebonised convex wall mirror sold at £12,500 at Toovey’s (24.5% buyer’s premium) on November 3.

A volume containing first editions of two important geological works by Dr Gideon Mantell sold for £2000 in West Sussex.

The founder of Toovey’s Auctioneers has been appointed Deputy Lieutenant for West Sussex.

A portrait of a young woman which was previously attributed to Angelica Kauffman drew bidding at Toovey’s (24.5% buyer’s premium) after being reattributed to George Romney (1734-1802).

Marriage or betrothal rings of the Byzantine period depict the bride and groom with Christ who performs the marriage rite.

Rare Japanese Meiji gold coin emerges at auction in West Sussex

The windmill cup was the most popular of the novelty silver wager cups produced from the late 16th century until the early 18th century.

Incorporating 40 coloured litho plates, a copy of The Last Works of Henri Matisse, a folio collection of 1958 issued by Harcourt Brace of New York, led a sale held by Toovey’s (24.5% buyer’s premium) of Washington in West Sussex at £2600.

The binding is an early 20th century one, and the very last leaf has been supplied as an autograph facsimile, but on March 17 the 1578 first English edition of Rembert Dodoens’ A Nievve Herball, or Historie of Plants shown here was bid to £3000.

Traditional high-society portrait by Sir Oswald Birley finds modern-day auction fans including an overseas buyer

Signed by the author and all members of the cast, the stage manager and the props manager, a 1943, Heinemann first of 'Present Laughter' was one of two Noel Coward plays that made up a lot sold for £1600 via thesaleroom.com in a Toovey’s (24.5% buyer’s premium) auction.

This Martin Brothers stoneware model of a tortoise with a mirthful face was a very welcome discovery for auctioneer Rupert Toovey on a post-lockdown valuation in the Surrey Hills.

While Manchester United and early FA Cup match programmes often make the big money at auction, a group on offer at a West Sussex saleroom showed that far less famous names can also make the running.

Puritan Cotton Mather’s defence of executions is latest work on the subject to surface.

According to patent documents dated February 1928, Woodlite headlamps invented by a William G Woods of Los Angeles were said to give the driver better illumination of distant objects ahead.

The binding of a copy of 'Vocabularis rerum' of Wenceslaus Brack sold in a recent West Sussex sale was a 19th century one and now broken, but this was in its time a very popular and much reprinted work.

Collectors who missed out on a rare late 19th century cabin trunk at auction last week have the chance to buy another in West Sussex this coming Friday.