Features

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”.

Dressing table sets are among the most frequently surviving elements of late 17th century hollowware.

With the scrap price of silver at such a high level the sad truth is that many items will end up in the melting pot.

A single-owner collection of rare 17th to 19th century pocket watches in Australia achieved a white-glove result with 95% of the sale going to international buyers

An early pocket watch by Abraham Louis Breguet with the low serial number 104 was one of the highlights of a recent watch sale at Cortrie (21% buyer’s premium) in Hamburg.

A selection of six watch lots at UK auctions

Updated 1960s and 70s versions of earlier Cartier classics are much in demand. The best are those made for the London boutique during the Jean-Jacques Cartier years, with the cases commissioned from the London workshop Wright & Davies and the manual wind movements supplied by Jaeger-LeCoultre.

Camerer Cuss watches carry a certain cachet.