Collectables

“Zulus, Sir. Thousands of ‘em”  - one of the classic lines from the 1964 film starring Stanley Baker and Michael Caine that brought the heroic defence of Rorke’s Drift to public attention.

Uniforms can be a hard sell at militaria auctions. Medals for example are nice and easy to display, while guns can sit high on the wall or in a cabinet, but what do you do with a full set of battledress unless you happen to be a re-enactor or happen to live in a mansion with lots of room for mannequins?

Medals specialist David Erskine-Hill has left Dix Noonan Webb to rejoin former employer Spink.

In September last year Wayne Rooney hit his 48th goal for England, overtaking at last Sir Bobby Charlton’s scoring record. But the achievements of a much earlier England star will be celebrated on December 15 thanks to an auction in Cornwall.

Star Wars, Action Man and plastic soldiers are just three of the toy collectable fields growing in demand as buyers get all nostalgic about their childhoods. Another biggie in this market is Lego.

Conservation and restoration firm Plowden & Smith has won a new contract to help the University of Edinburgh renovate Scotland’s oldest concert hall.

Rarely seen photographs of the wedding that caused a constitutional crisis and rocked the British monarchy have been sold at £9200.

One of the most famous firearms in French literary history has sold for €360,000 (£305,605) at Christie’s in Paris.

It might not be a Bag for Life but this plastic bag has set a collector back £240.

Antiques Roadshow expert and militaria specialist Graham Lay has passed away. A well-known personality on the show for more than 25 years, his death was announced by the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow.

A musical manuscript at the centre of a row over whether it was handwritten by Ludwig van Beethoven or a copyist has failed to sell at an auction at Sotheby’s.

Besides the danger of a dog bite, delivering the mail is not generally seen as a perilous business. However, as a presentation sword up at auction in London shows, on occasion it can be a matter of life or death.

The War of the Worlds 1953 British quad film poster is regarded as a scarce must-have in that collecting market.

A handwritten poem by Anne Frank has sold at auction in the Netherlands at €140,000 (£119,000).

East Bristol Auctions is holding a Lego sale next month. With more than 300 lots, the firm claims the auction will be the world’s first dedicated Lego toy sale.

A rare dodo skeleton – the first almost complete specimen in nearly a century – has sold for £280,000 at auction.

A button reading ‘Equality’ and commemorating Booker T Washington’s dinner with President Theodore Roosevelt in the White House is included in Heritage Auction’s upcoming Americana sale.

Medals won by former Everton winger Cliff Britton (1909-75), who later went on to manage the club in the 1950s, are being offered at an auction in East Yorkshire.

A violin made from one of Winston Churchill’s cigar boxes was one of the starring lots at Ingles & Hayday October 25 auction.

Boningtons have sold a rare Queen Anne 'Vigo' gold coin for £225,000. One of Britain's rarest coins, it was knocked down to a buyer in the room and set a house record for the Essex auctioneers.