Collectables

The Colt Clavier collection of historical keyboard instruments will be offered on June 7 in a sale held by Canterbury Auction Galleries in association with London specialist Piano Auctions.

Marcus Budgen is to head the Spink medals department after the departure of David Erskine-Hill.

Four years in, Photo London is growing and has many of the marks of remaining a popular and respected fair for dealers in both historic and contemporary photography.

An unusual collection of more than 300 blue-toned cyanotypes showing American railroads in the early 1900s is on offer at the third annual London Photograph Fair Special Edition (May 19-20).

One of the finest Victoria Cross medals awarded to a Canadian recipient will be staying in Canada thanks to a successf ul fundraising campaign.

Axel Plambeck (b.1936) was CEO of a re-insurance company and in his spare time he collected vintage luggage and picnic sets.

ATG’s calendar of book auctions taking place in the UK and Ireland from May 8-18, 2018.

A rare 18th century variable microscope by eminent instrument maker George Adams sold for £88,000 at specialist science and early technology auctioneer Flints (20% + VAT buyer’s premium).

Numerous works of art in the spring sales at Van Ham in Cologne come from the extensive legacy of Friedrich Wilhelm Waffenschmidt (1925-2017), founder of one of Europe’s leading electronics retailers.

Taken in June 1905 on the River Helmsdale in Sutherland, the very northern and wildest tip of Scotland, is this image, below, of two men fishing.

Those who worry about the art and antiques market’s ability to react to its big three challenges – digitisation, changing tastes and an ageing collector base – should look to the books, maps and prints sector and take heart.

Limited to 111 copies (105 on paper and six on vellum), ‘The Ashendene Dante’ is the rarest of the three magnum opi of the English private press movement.

In the bicentenery year of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the Gothic genre continues to capture the popular imagination, writes Kate Quill.