Collectables

A hand-written and autographed speech by President John F Kennedy is among the lots from Malcolm S Forbes’ estate to be sold at auction next week.

An original 1920s Vogue cover by French illustrator Georges Lepape broke the auction record for the artist last month.

Forum Auctions has formalised its deal with book dealer Filippo Rotundo’s Phiobiblon Gallery and will hold Forum branded auctions in Italy later this month.

Auction specialists in Australia have found a rare Ming Dynasty banknote hidden within a Chinese wooden sculpture. The discovery came at Mossgreen as they were cataloguing the extensive collection of Raphy Star – one of the most important collections of Asian art ever to be offered in the country.

The organisers of a new collectors’ fair at Marlborough College say they have had “a tremendous response from the trade” but still have a few spaces left for the inaugural event later this month.

Frontman Paul Weller’s shoes and bassist Bruce Foxton’s guitars were among 800 lots of The Jam memorabilia auctioned at the weekend.

A musket made in the Chinese Imperial workshops, complete with marks, will become the first of its kind to be offered at auction next month.

The murder of book dealer Adrian Greenwood was part of an attempt to steal a £50,000 first edition of the Wind in the Willows, a court has heard.

Comic-strip art is a hugely popular auction category in France where it goes under the name of ‘Bande Dessinée’ and many specialist sales are staged.

Collectables and auction business Stanley Gibbons has posted a £28.9m full-year loss after writing down the value of its assets.

A new study suggests that buying a first edition book, such as Hilary Matel’s Wolf Hall, is a better investment than buying stocks in tech companies such as Microsoft, Yahoo and eBay.

A sale of items once owned by President Ronald Reagan and his wife Nancy soared to a hammer total of $5.74m at Christie’s New York last week.

Fancy owning a piece of the Eiffel Tower, the ceiling from a Parisian boulangerie or butcher’s shop or an old seat from the Metro?

A D-Day Landings Omaha Beach flag is being offered at C&T Auctioneers on September 28.

A pair of Queen Victoria's drawers sold for a record-breaking £16,250 at Christie’s South Kensington on September 14.

The Dutch buyer of ‘the most valuable Second World War battle flag ever sold’ has loaned it to the National Military Museum in Soesterberg, the Netherlands.

A new London book fair organised by a pair of dealers debuts this autumn and features some of the trade’s most familiar names in a three-day luxury event.

Film buffs take note, auctioneers Thomas Plant and Neil Shuttleworth of Special Auction Services are to preside over a movie memorabilia auction on September 27 totalling nearly 600 lots.

The Osbourne family have snapped up Black Sabbath memorabilia ahead of a planned auction in Sheffield.

A 19th century singing bird box is a starring lot at an upcoming County Durham auction that features several animal-themed lots.