Newcastle upon Tyne

What is being promoted as “perhaps the most significant private collection of British comics ever assembled” is coming to market with two separate auction houses involved.

Although 17th and 18th century Jamaican silver is some of the rarest colonial plate, two small waiters sold at auctions in the north of England in as many months.

The city of Newcastle enjoyed a long gold and silversmithing tradition.

A trio of works by Cumbrian artist Sheila Fell (1931-79) were among the highlights of Newcastle saleroom Anderson & Garland’s (25% buyer’s premium) latest Modern Art & Design Auction.

The Lawes Resolutions of Women’s Rights: or the Lawes Provision for Women, attributed to the English lawyer Thomas Edgar and printed in 1632 by John More, is recognised as the earliest book in the English language to compile laws relating to women.

Sold at £250, this brooch probably commemorates the opening of Hill House Military Hospital, also known as School Hill House Hospital, in Lewes.

A group of works by Robert Jobling (1841-1923), a leading figure in the artistic circles of late 19th century Tyneside, has come to Newcastle saleroom Anderson & Garland.

Manuscripts underline the overlapping lives of families in northern England and their extensive travels

A fine example of the Libertas Americana silver medal is estimated to fetch between £50,000-80,000 at Anderson & Garland’s Fine Silver and Objects of Vertu auction in Newcastle on July 22.

A rarity at a recent Woolley & Wallis (26% buyer’s premium) ceramics and glass sale was a late 18th century Wedgwood basalt intaglio seal, featuring a profile portrait of the notorious American spy Captain Nathan Hale (1755-76) beside the reversed inscription 'My Country!!!'.

From the late 18th century, Birmingham was the centre for the making of ‘toys’ – small decorative objects including boxes, nutmeg graters, buckles, caddy spoons, vinaigrettes and rattles, fashioned from silver.

Spoons are among the very few pieces of English silver surviving from the period of Wars of the Roses.

Ken Besford of Durham Promotions NE, organiser of the Great North Decorative Antique Fair, is heading down the straight for the spring edition (Saturday and Sunday, April 26-27) of the triannual event he launched last year at Newcastle Racecourse.