Collectables

Once ubiquitous in British seaside resorts in their day, many pre-war amusement arcade machines are now so rare that just a handful are recorded.

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The astrolabe was used for not only telling the time, but mapping one’s location, tracking the stars, and even as an astrological tool for decision-making.

This Victorian lacquered brass device made by Elliot Brothers of London is a reflecting goniometer.

Knowledgeable bidders generated high prices for early typewriters at German technology specialist’s latest sale

Twenty-six lots in the Science, Natural History and Curiosities sale at Burstow & Hewett (20% buyer’s premium) in Battle were previously owned by local botanist and entomologist George West.

Priced 10 cents when it appeared in 1938, a copy of Action Comics No 1 which introduced Superman has become the world’s most valuable comic book.

'Moulin Rouge, La Goulue' was Henri Toulouse-Lautrec’s first commissioned poster and it launched his poster-making career overnight.

Though the performer is largely forgotten today, two Bénévol-related items appeared at Bernaerts (25% buyer’s premium) in Antwerp as part of a Circus & Magic sale.

Leading Forum’s (30/24/14.4% buyer’s premium inc VAT) March 27 auction of more books from the remarkable library of Norman Bobins was a complete copy of a German work following the course of the Danube from its source to the Black Sea.

Around 28 American-built Wurlitzers were originally transported to Britain from 1925 until just before the Second World War.

Although easily mistaken for railway or ship lamps, this pair of brass and iron lanterns were made for a road locomotive: the steam-driven traction engines that were some of the first powered vehicles to travel on Britain’s highways.

This aristocratic survivor from the ‘brass and glass’ era of microscope making, a version of Powell & Lealand’s famous ‘No 1’ compound monocular and binocular microscope, is dated 1898.

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The familiar heart symbol - that today is ‘read’ as love - made its first appearance as a rebus in the late Medieval era.

Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980) took great delight in making cameo appearances in the films he produced and directed.

A collection of vintage comics has sold at auction in Lichfield for a total hammer price of £13,150.