Collectables

A copy of the 1543, first German language edition of a work that centuries later, in 'Printing and the Mind of Man', was declared to be “perhaps the most celebrated and most beautiful herbal ever published” was offered by Gloucestershire saleroom Dominic Winter (20% buyer’s premium) on October 12.

A dealer who acquired a long-closed angling shop is bringing a Swedish touch via Suffolk to the annual National Vintage Fishing Tackle Fair.

A Dutch travelogue from the early years of Arctic exploration sold for £44,000 (plus 25% buyer’s premium) at Chiswick Auctions on October 26.

In 1888, in response to a tender issued by the War Office, Prof Archibald Barr and Dr William Stroud submitted an application for an optical range-finder patent to the Patents Office.

Relatively few gallantry medals available for what was short self-contained conflict, heroic stories involving highly collectable regiments, a relatively morally unambiguous backstory (for British collectors at least)… the Falklands War can generate high demand at auction.

Lt William Emlyn Hardwick (1885-1918) was born in Brecon but by the time he enlisted to fight in the First World War he was living in Australia.

Documents were consigned among contents of a house owned by the Arkwright family

Despite their sterling service with the Allies, a large number of Polish soldiers could not return home when the fighting ended, as a fascinating archive reveals.

Much, much earlier than most other entries in a comics and comic art sale that ran at Heritage (25% buyer’s premium) from September 30 to October 2 were examples of the work of Winsor McCay (c.1866-67-1934), who was well known as an accomplished editorial and political cartoonist and for his work in the world of animation and cartoon strips.

Air Commander J Searby had a key role to play in the Peenemunde Raid targeting the V weapons factory during the night of the August 17-18, 1943, as part of the RAF’s elite Path Finder Force.

Estimated at £600-800, a 1777 first in marbled board covers of John Chapman and Peter Andre’s 'Map of the County of Essex from an Actual Survey' was sold for what would appear to be an auction record.

When Bill Speakman won his Victoria Cross on November 4, 1951, fighting beside him was Corporal John Pender.

The big attraction in a job lot estimated at £60-100 that went on to sell for £14,000 in a September 23 sale held by Ewbank’s (25% buyer’s premium) was a copy of Britannia: or, a Chorographical Description…, Dr Edmund Gibson’s 1695, updated and English language version of a well-known earlier work.

Stroud Auction Rooms’ sale on November 9-10 will feature over 1000 lots of guns, weapons, medals and militaria, including two notable collections.

A group of father-and-son lots related to the Royal Navy may have been small in size but revealed a combined service in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars that was lengthy.

A police ledger sold more than triple its top estimate featured original mug shots and criminal records relating to 500 people including a woman accused of plotting to kill Prime Minister David Lloyd George in 1917.

Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions.

The vast majority of Mauchline items seen today are engraved transfer-printed wares or other types of ‘fancy Scotch woodwork’ from the Victorian era such as fernware or tartanware.