Collectables

Affirming the strength of the market for the best British milled coins, two exceptional English gold issues were among the top prices of this year’s New York International Numismatic Convention auctions.

‘Masterpieces’ from the celebrated collections of Dr Martin Schøyen offered at a recent Christie’s (25/20/13.5% buyer’s premium) sale in London included some real rarities.

In ATG No 2427 we noted the sale at Sotheby’s on December 10, at a very much higher than expected £50,000, of a rare copy of the 1553 translation into ‘Scots English’ of Virgil’s Aeneid by Gavin Douglas, Bishop of Dunkeld.

Rare book dealer Dr Jörn Günther of Switzerland specialises in manuscripts, miniatures, and rare early printed books from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

Our regular listing of British and Irish book auctions.

Willem Janszoon Blaeu is one of the more famous names in the history of map and globe making and at Christie’s (25/20/13.5/% buyer’s premium), the tiny pocket globe attributed to him shown here was sold for a treble-estimate £230,000.

Extraordinarily high prices paid for the works of the Russian writer Nikolai Stepanovich Gumilev were noted in ATG No 2425, and there were many more lots of interest in the sale held by Christie’s (25/20/13.5% buyer’s premium) in which they were offered.

For a man who has built his career around teddy bears it is a strange quirk of fate that these inoffensive toys make him feel unwell.

Popular in the first decades of the 19th century, the eight-key flute is something of a transitional instrument, retaining many of the characteristics of the earlier baroque flute and the modern instrument.

A clever piece of marketing from the oil company Shell and with slightly saucy automobile-referenced lines, this Valentine dates from a tradition of sending cards to Shell’s female customers who had accounts at their garages. This ran from 1938-75, apart from an interruption during the war years.

The arms fair held in the Pillar Hall in Olympia is moving to another venue in west London which provides greater space.

Discovered hanging on a gold charm bracelet, a rare Mughal coin has sold for Can$420,000 (£248,000) at a Canadian auction house.

Bible suggests confusion over ‘he’ or ‘she’ may not be purely a modern-day phenomenon.

Two ‘Frost Fair’ broadsides printed at one of the many stalls set up on the Thames during a hard 18th century winter in which London’s river froze over were sold in a recent sale held by Dominic Winter (20% buyer’s premium).

Published anonymously in Boston in 1828, a copy of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s youthful first book, 'Fanshawe', sold for $38,000 (£28,790) at Bonhams New York (27.5/25/20/13.9%).

Fifty or so lots from the library of the Earls of Haddington that were offered as part of London sale included their fair share of exceptional lots.

Book dealer Tom Lintern-Mole runs Antiquates in Corfe Castle, Dorset.

Our regular listing of British and Irish book auctions.