Auctions

The Hornby train set is 100 years old this year. ATG reports on the sale of a remarkable century-old survivor plus highlights from across the UK regions

This exhibition-quality skeleton clock, made by Anglo-German clockmaking firm Camerer Kuss & Co to celebrate Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, sold for £78,000 at Bonhams last week.

Auction house Adam Partridge is to remodel its calendar, moving away from large multi-discipline sales in favour of more frequent specialised events.

A section of maritime antiques offered at Adam Partridge (20% buyer’s premium) in Liverpool included an otherwise pedestrian Spode cup and saucer made c.1910.

The fortnightly Saturday afternoon TV show Whirligig was the first children’s programme to be broadcast live from the BBC studios in Lime Grove, Shepherd’s Bush.

An original Raleigh Chopper bicycle that may never have been ridden has been sold at Derbyshire saleroom Hansons (25% buyer’s premium) for £1250 – more than double top estimate.

In a letter to his brother, written in 1883, Vincent van Gogh expressed his admiration for the Swiss painter Albert Anker.

A bidding battle broke out at Kinsky (28% buyer’s premium) in Vienna for this pair of figures fashioned as King Henry VIII and his daughter Elizabeth I, each about 13in (32cm) high.

Underlining the nostalgic appeal of the 1970s-80s toys that today’s collectors once played with as children, this group of Action Man uniforms estimated at £40-60 sold for £1300 at the Keys (20% buyer’s premium) Toys auction on July 7.

Estimated at £150-200, this Georgian dial clock stormed to £4800 at Charterhouse (25% buyer’s premium) in Sherborne. Two collectors made much of the bidding.

One of the “very earliest books printed in Arabic by means of moveable type” made £18,000 at Bloomsbury Auctions (25/20/12% buyer’s premium).

A second tranche of works from the estate of Tony Venison, the long-serving gardens editor of Country Life, lifted the latest Modern British and 20th century art auction at Sworders (25% buyer’s premium).

Published in 1970, 'William the Lawless' marked the last appearance in full book form of Richmal Crompton’s much-loved schoolboy hero – almost 50 years on from the publication of the first, 'Just William' of 1922.

Running to just 10 lots and held online Essential Genius: Ten Important Manuscripts for Modern Times was a Bonhams New York (27.5/25/20/13.9%) auction.

Toys from the Attack Force range are not the earliest of the Airfix models, but they are perhaps the most desirable.

Cedric Morris (1889-1982) is now a major name in the Mod Brit market whose most bountiful flower paintings can sell for over £100,000. While Sworders has a strong track-record with the artist-plantsman, works depicting two rather different subjects were offered at the latest sale in this category.

ATG’s calendar of book auctions taking place in the UK and Ireland from July 21-Aug 1, 2020.

Sixteen upcoming lots from auctions taking place around the UK and Ireland.

There is a phenomenon known in Germany as Ostalgie, which is a nostalgic feeling for the now defunct East German state (GDR).