Collectables

“Beautifully gilded”, “hand painted”, “much sought after”. Perhaps not words that are commonly applied to police batons, but this is how auctioneer Charles Hanson described the collection of British truncheons coming up for auction this month.

America’s previously neglected founding father Alexander Hamilton is now firmly back to prominence after the Broadway hit ‘Hamilton’, which won eleven Tony Awards last year. The show is now coming to London's West End this year.

Baldwin’s of St James’s, launched at the current The New York International Numismatic Convention (NYINC), brings the auction business of numismatists AH Baldwin & Sons and St James’s Auctions together.

A photograph album of the ‘real Downton Abbey’ has been revealed after 120 years and will be up for auction next month.

With the heroics of ‘the few’ in the Battle of Britain more or less guaranteeing auction interest, it is easy to overlook the incredible bravery of bomber crews.

Evelyn Waugh fans should listen up: one of the writer’s ear trumpets will be offered at auction.

The plastic fiver has become a familiar sight in the UK since it was issued last September and this summer the tenner version will follow. It seems unlikely that glass coins will also appear – but that was not the case in the US in 1942.

A rare European gold coin found by a dog-walker on a Cornish beach is to be auctioned in Penzance later this month.

The hive of art world activity in the Big Apple in January kicks off with the New York International Numismatic Convention, or NYINC, which takes place at the Waldorf Astoria.

Guitars owned by music legends Jimi Hendrix and Prince were the stars of Bonhams December 15 Entertainment Memorabilia auction in London.

“I am not a number, I am a free man,” was the cry of Patrick McGoohan in TV series The Prisoner. The important number at the Charterhouse auction house on February 12 is £20,000-25,000 - the estimate for a 1963 Lotus Super Seven S2, the model made famous by appearing in that 1960s cult favourite show.

English wines are steadily gaining a reputation for decent quality, with sparkling styles in particular starting to challenge Champagne as an alternative patriotic option. Back in 1889, it was Welsh whisky throwing the gauntlet down to Scotland in the hope of supping long-running success.

Property developer and collector Harry Hyams, who died in December 2015, has left much of his £487m estate to a charity that will preserve his collection for the nation.

Pete Waterman, Neil Young, Roger Daltrey and Peter Snow all do it. Frank Sinatra and Peter Sellers did it. Rod Stewart apparently hires extra hotel rooms on tour to indulge in it. ‘It’ being the innocent and highly popular pastime of model railways.

Most collectors have a burning passion. For John and Patricia McKenzie, the items that fired their interest were vesta cases, the small portable boxes made to contain matches and keep them dry.

Plastic money has been a bone of contention recently thanks to the strange revelation that the new UK £5 notes include animal fat. But one day the polymer notes will surely be as normal and accepted as the existing paper examples, assuming physical money has not all but disappeared anyway by then.

If you want to imagine what a bulletproof vest might look like if designed in the 16th century, a couple of fascinating pieces of very rare armour bought by the Victoria & Albert Museum give a clue.

If a Chanel snow globe, a Fabergé bracelet or a blue table by Yves Klein are on the list for Father Christmas this year then head to Christie’s Paris showroom this weekend.

As you peruse this story on your computer, smartphone or tablet, take a look at the keyboard on said devices and spare a thought for the Rev Rasmus Malling-Hansen (1835-90).