Latest News Articles by Tom Derbyshire
Marvel Comics collection including first appearance of the Fantastic Four makes five figures at auction
30 March 2019A collection of Marvel comics kept in a bank vault after coming a whisker away from being stolen has sold for £15,200 in total at a Staffordshire saleroom.
Annual Beatles memorabilia auction held by US saleroom Juliens' will be staged in Liverpool for the first time
28 March 2019Beatlemania is coming to Liverpool. Well, it never went away, but this fresh wave of interest in the ever-popular Fab Four is in the form of an annual auction held by an American saleroom that is now to be held on Merseyside.
March mega-sleepers: Nine items that sold for more than 100-times estimate at auction
27 March 2019The month of March produced an unusually large number of sleepers across the UK’s regional salerooms – from an Old Master drawing to a rare Marklin tinplate train.
Rugby memorabilia auction takes place at the home of the Welsh side in a Grand Slam year
25 March 2019Welsh rugby is on a high with their 12th Grand Slam secured on March 16 with a 25-7 win over Ireland – so it’s a perfect time for a special memorabilia auction to be held at the venue for Welsh home international games.
Candlestand bought at auction reunited with pair at York museum after half a century apart
18 March 2019A pair of rare George II rosewood candlestands c.1745-60 has been reunited by Fairfax House in York after one of them was spotted at a Woolley & Wallis auction at the start of the year.
Small model trains steam away to huge prices at auction as rarity value counts
06 March 2019A simple toy steam locomotive left a vendor chuffed as it made a hammer price 115 times its top estimate.
Lost Doctor Who Daleks episode lives again as archive comes to auction
06 March 2019‘Lost’ episodes of TV series have become sought-after items, not least among Doctor Who fans. Of interest to collectors is an archive of photographs and copies of plans from The Power of the Daleks – the completely missing third serial of the fourth season first broadcast by the BBC in six weekly parts from November 5-December 10, 1966.
The late England goalkeeper Gordon Banks' shirt and an early All Blacks kit score at auction
05 March 2019Sport shirts at regional auction houses in Cardiff and Surrey win fans.
First edition of new-look antiques arms fair in west London features international selection of dealers
27 February 2019The inaugural staging of an expanded antiques arms fair in west London will welcome a number of European dealers.
World Cup winner Gordon Banks match-worn England shirt comes up at auction
26 February 2019An England football shirt worn by the late, great goalkeeper Gordon Banks is coming up for sale at Surrey auction house Ewbank’s.
Original shirt for the All Black of 1905 who became a rugby league All Gold is up for sale at Cardiff saleroom Rogers Jones
20 February 2019Three and a half years ago Welsh saleroom Rogers Jones set a world record for a rugby shirt at auction when a jersey from the 1905-06 New Zealand tour to the UK made £180,000 – and now another All Blacks shirt from that era is on offer from the same auction house.
Votes for Women anniversary effect lasts into 2019 with a fresh Suffragette consignment
19 February 2019Anniversaries can tempt out collections to auction but it can have a longer-lasting effect. Last year marked the centenary of votes for women in Britain and a lot coming up in 2019 shows the consignments are still out there.
No, it isn’t a huge carrot…
18 February 2019It’s not every day you see an auctioneer holding a 5ft 6in (1.67m) long sperm whale penis. Then again, it’s not every day that you see the sort of lots that are offered in Sworders’ Out of the Ordinary auction.
Car badges and mascots: the world of automobilia at auction
13 February 2019Every collecting field starts out with a broad umbrella title: classic cars, for instance. Easy. However, as you descend through the levels it not only drops into sub-sections, but veers off to the side, so you also get automobilia, the ephemera surrounding those cars.
Huge collection of finds from Anglo-Saxon pagan cemetery site to be offered by Derbyshire auction house Hansons in a private deal
06 February 2019With the British Library’s acclaimed Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms exhibition shedding light on this sometimes overlooked and misunderstood period, the timing is perfect for a Derbyshire saleroom’s announcement of a remarkable collection coming up for sale.
Medals group of a brilliant Dambusters raid planner up at auction in London
04 February 2019The medals group of “a brilliant and meticulous planner” who worked on the Dambusters raid and then the sinking of the German battleship Tirpitz is coming up for auction in London.
The 25 Blythe Road auctions collective is relaunching under the brand of Olympia Auctions
29 January 2019The London auctions ‘hub’ of 25 Blythe Road will now operate under a single banner of Olympia Auctions.
Medals awarded to Britain's shortest-serving prime minister George Canning come up at London auction
25 January 2019Pub names can provide a snapshot of British history. Many years ago now, while subsisting on cheese on toast at a university hall of residence in south London, I was fascinated by the name of a nearby boozer called the George Canning.
Auction of a musical collection so large they bought the cottage over the road to house it
25 January 2019Collecting often leads to a certain obsession, as many enthusiasts with attics filled to burst or garages stuffed with boxes will admit. Take the example of a group now forming 700 lots to be dispersed at an Irish sale.
James Bond Moonraker laser rifle stuns at auction taking £22,000
22 January 2019A ‘Moonraker’ laser rifle and letter from Roger Moore are among sales highlights at a James Bond auction in the Midlands as Surrey auction house Ewbank’s prepares for its Bond and Beyond memorabilia sale.