Auctions

Andrew Morris spent over 30 years putting together a collection focusing on the Worcester porcelain of the Kerr and Binns and Royal Worcester periods and Leonard Joel (25% buyer’s premium) offered it at auction in Melbourne, Australia, over two days on March 25-26.

Deceased estates and collectors selling up mean items collected in the late 20th century reappear at auction.

Ceramic phrenology heads have become ubiquitous following numerous reproductions. However, original 19th century models are much harder to come by.

Dating from March 1-October 13, 1748, a journal for sale at London maritime specialist Charles Miller’s auction on April 23 was written by Admiral John Byng (1704-57) during the final negotiations of the failed Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle and some eight years before his infamous actions off the coast of Minorca.

The invention of the megalethoscope by the Swiss-Italian optician and photographer Carlo Ponti greatly enhanced the experience of viewing photographs.

ATG’s pick of auction lots bought by internet bidders on thesaleroom.com, featuring both the highest prices over-estimate and the top prices paid online.

Austin Farahar, head of cameras and photography at Chiswick Auctions (25% buyer’s premium), was recently contacted by a budding documentary photographer in Vienna who had received a collection of old cameras from his in-laws.

Our selection of lots from 13 upcoming auctions

Perfect to impress your friends and family – or annoy them – many vintage jukeboxes can be bought at auction for three or four figures depending on age, model and condition.

A group of seven works by George Spencer Watson (1869-1934) provided a boost to Minster Auctions’ (20% buyer’s premium) recent two-day sale of fine art and antiques.

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.

Our regular listing of books and works on paper sales

One of the most important groups of works by the artists’ colony to emerge recently indicates level of demand in this market

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.