Features

While the big hitter auction houses found the environment challenging, the mid-tier salerooms, dealers and fairs enjoyed a generally more positive experience this year

Graham Budd’s (24% buyer’s premium) On the Road to Manchester & The Kits of Legends Auction on October 1-2 included memorabilia from former Red Devils Gordon McQueen (1952-2023), David McCreery (b.1957) and Viv Anderson (b.1956).

A suitcase given by a famous football manager to his next-door neighbours contained a winning formula

When Liverpool FC played their first-ever Football League fixture in the second division in September 1893 the left-back was a Scot called Duncan McLean (1868-1941).

A replica Cheltenham Gold Cup awarded to Frank Vickerman, the owner of 1948 winner Cottage Rake, fetched £26,000 at Graham Budd (24% buyer’s premium) on November 13.

The late 1960s was a glorious time to be a Baggies fan.

A ‘baggy green’ Australian Test cricket cap belonging to cricketing royalty appeared at Bonhams Sydney on December 3.

A football collection of shirts, medals and international caps belonging to Britain’s first million-pound player, Trevor Francis, was on offer at Piers Motley (18% buyer’s premium) in Exmouth, Devon, on October 17.

In the 19th century Sutton's Seeds was leading the way in formulating policy for seed testing.

The latest sale of Petroliana at Richard Edmonds Auctions (12/20% buyer’s premium) in Chippenham included a super-rare English oil can.

Following more than four decades of collecting, advertising signs such as Cadbury classics have entered the mainstream

Poster specialist Antikbar (20% buyer’s premium) offered a 10-lot collection of 1960s Air India posters featuring the popular comic ‘Maharajah’ character.

Cadbury's advertising sign on offer in Staffs saleroom

Many collectors own examples of Palethorpes signs for sausages and pork pies.

As the gift-giving season arrives, jewellery seldom disappoints. Pictured here are a range of antique and vintage jewels coming up for sale in the next couple of weeks, all with estimates under £1500.

While the buying audience still loves its brand names and big stones, jewellery with a narrative is a strength of the market

The French-American sculptor Niki de Saint Phalle (1930-2002) started making jewellery in the early 1970s after she was introduced to the Italian goldsmith Giancarlo Montebello in Paris.

Although the size of the collecting audience is changing - and the arrival or departure of just one or two committed buyers can make a significant difference to prices - British provincial wares can command decent prices.

The Autumn Auction at Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood (26/25% buyer’s premium) in Exeter included an array of unusual objects from the collection of the late Christopher Hawkings.

In his magnus opus Memorials of the Jeypore Exhibition, 1883, Thomas Holbein Hendley (1847-1917) documents what he called “a new and most interesting style of engraved silver plate developed in Alwar”.