Auction Reports

The New Orphan Houses in the Ashley Down district in the north of Bristol were once the largest orphanages in the UK.

London numismatic auction house Morton & Eden (23% buyer’s premium) sold a silver plaquette by the great Dutch silversmith Paulus van Vianen (1570-1613) for £130,000 at a recent sale.

Across the Georgian period a number of diminutive ‘bachelor’s’ teapots were produced that were probably intended for brewing saffron.

The latest sale of Cornish Art, Fine Art & Studio Pottery at Lay’s (21% buyer’s premium) in Penzance featured 85 lots from the personal art collection of Michael Hunt.

Among the most desirable of the Chinese export porcelain patterns made for the Dutch market is the so-called ‘skating lesson’ design.

A decade ago V&A curators used an X-ray to discover what was inside a vintage Christmas cracker made in the 1920s by the Tom Smith company without having to actually pull it. This revealed a small chocolate.

Contrasting contraptions both sell for strong five-figure sums in salerooms north and south

It has been estimated there are between 500 and 1000 different types of marble-in-neck mineral water bottles based on the famous 1872 patent by Hiram Codd.

The Wurlitzer Company was founded in the US in 1856 and the Centennial 2000 jukebox model was created to commemorate the centenary anniversary.

A recent sale at Halls (24% buyer’s premium) in Shrewsbury included an exceptional Swiss music box: a Sublime Harmony orchestral music box by George Baker & Co, Geneva.

Extensive contents of Cumbrian castle take three days to sell in North Yorkshire auction

In the last ATG (No 2731) we featured an Ashbourne Royal Shrovetide Football sold on January 22 at Truro Auction Centre for £4200 and mentioned others sold at Hansons in 2022.

So much silver has sold based solely on melt value of late. One wonders exactly how many decent antiques and collectables will have been lost once the bubble has deflated.

Judging by recent auctions, once live acts in the circus are now thrilling eager collectors via memorabilia.

John Short, a well-known collector in the Bristol area, amassed over 50,000 autographs in his lifetime. He began obtaining signatures at stage doors in the 1960s right up until his death in 2022.

Latest sale of props from renowned company features several surprises such as Spanish revivalist chairs

The ancient game of Royal Shrovetide Football has been played in the Derbyshire town of Ashbourne on Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday since the 17th century.

Incomparable! Delightful! The one and only! Miss Show Business Judy Garland’s All Star Variety Show – as billed at the time – opened at the Dominion Theatre in London’s Tottenham Court Road in October 17, 1957, for a four-and-a-half week run.

‘Coal’ is a dirty word in today’s world of increasingly clean energy but in terms of a model offered at auction it can still generate a strong price.

This array of jewels formed part of the first tranche of a remarkable private collection sold by Catherine Southon (23% buyer’s premium) in Chislehurst.