Collectables

One of 170 complete copies of the privately printed Cranwell edition of the 'Seven Pillars of Wisdom, A Triumph', 1926, by TE Lawrence (better known as Lawrence of Arabia) leads the Swann Galleries sale on May 16 in New York.

Ernest Hemingway and F Scott Fitzgerald were among the financial big-hitters when a third part of the extensive Maurice F Neville collection of modern literature was sold by Sotheby’s New York (25/20/12.5% buyer’s premium) on April 24.

“We were somewhere around Barstow when the drugs began to take hold” are the opening words of Hunter S Thompson’s notorious and loosely autobiographical novel Fear and Loathing Las Vegas…

The biannual National Vintage Fishing Tackle Fair at the Redditch Sports Centre in Redditch on Sunday, May 14, which has been fully booked for months, is the last to be held at this venue in its 13 years of existence, as the centre is closing.

Sold for £6000 in a Forum Auctions (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) sale of March 30 was a copy of one of the earliest books on swimming.

Gustave Vichy was probably the most accomplished manufacturer of automata in fin de siècle France. A prime example of his art is putting in an appearance at the May 20 sale of Auction Team Breker in Cologne.

Reversing the usual pattern where it is an author’s first book that makes the big money, it is the last of the 38 books featuring Richmal Crompton’s most famous children’s book creation that has for many years been one of the most expensive purchases for collectors.

“Wait a minute. You’re putting my gloves in jail? This is awful. How can you put my gloves in jail? They ain’t done nothing… yet!”

Catch of the day at Cockermouth auctioneers Mitchells’ (20% buyer’s premium) sporting sale on April 8 was a cast of a salmon. The 48lb fish, cast by Mallochs of Perth, was estimated at £1800-2000 but was reeled in by a Scottish enthusiast at £5200.

Best round scores in the most recent PBA Galleries (20/15% buyer’s premium) golfing sale came with the appearance of a group of the papers of golfing historian and collector CB Clapcott.

Compiled by J Wells Kelly and published in San Francisco in 1862, a rare copy of the First Directory of Nevada Territory…, which was worn, dry and splitting but in original, leather-backed printed boards, sold for $6500 (£5080) in a PBA Galleries sale of April 20.

If you are interested in Chinese mother-of-pearl gaming counters then it’s a pretty good bet that the name Bill Neal will also come up.

The antiquarian book trade has lost two well-known faces with the deaths of Frank Herrmann and Roy Davids.

Antique dolls supremo Judy Bebber has been organising the biannual Kensington Doll Show at Kensington Town Hall for 20 years.