UK

Vetted fair may be compact in scale but still packs a punch

If horology is your passion then two events coming up will prove timely.

Relatively few gallantry medals available for what was short self-contained conflict, heroic stories involving highly collectable regiments, a relatively morally unambiguous backstory (for British collectors at least)… the Falklands War can generate high demand at auction.

The big attraction in a job lot estimated at £60-100 that went on to sell for £14,000 in a September 23 sale held by Ewbank’s (25% buyer’s premium) was a copy of Britannia: or, a Chorographical Description…, Dr Edmund Gibson’s 1695, updated and English language version of a well-known earlier work.

When Bill Speakman won his Victoria Cross on November 4, 1951, fighting beside him was Corporal John Pender.

A police ledger sold more than triple its top estimate featured original mug shots and criminal records relating to 500 people including a woman accused of plotting to kill Prime Minister David Lloyd George in 1917.

In 1888, in response to a tender issued by the War Office, Prof Archibald Barr and Dr William Stroud submitted an application for an optical range-finder patent to the Patents Office.

Taking place in Carmarthen at the United Counties Showground on Sunday, November 13, is the antiques and fleamarket which was run for many years by dealers Robert and Carol Pugh but is now organised by the showground itself.

In the early 1930s, following the closure of its ironstone mines, unemployment in the east Cleveland region of North Yorkshire reached a harrowing 90%.

Asian Art in London announced the winners of the first group of its awards last week.

A microscope used by Joseph Banks (1743-1820) on Captain Cook’s first Voyage of Discovery (1768-71) is going under the hammer estimated at £30,000-50,000 on November 1.

Despite wider economic uncertainty, prices for LS Lowry (1887-1976) seem to keep on rising.

The sale of Silver and Objects of Vertu at Bonhams Knightsbridge on October 20-21 was topped by a multi-estimate bid for a remarkable flatware service by Tiffany.

A Chinese jardiniere once used as a fish bowl by Horace Walpole (1717-97) is to return to his Strawberry Hill home.