Features

Proving that not all clocks need to sell for thousands to attract interest, this 19th century circular mantel clock sold at Stamford Auction Rooms (20% buyer’s premium) in Lincolnshire for £500 with an estimate of £50-£80.

Not quite in step with contemporary interiors, French decorative clocks have had a lower profile at auction in recent times.

The autumn season will bring a number of English Golden Age clocks by top makers to auction.

Two late 19th century novelty clocks at Dreweatts achieved good results on September 6.

An area of specific current interest is high-quality English 19th century clocks with precision movements housed in carriage or mantel cases.

On offer at the Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photographs sale held by Lyon & Turnbull in Edinburgh on September 28 is an anti-slavery broadside: 'The Sorrows of Yamba, or, the Negro Woman’s Lamentation. To the Tune of Hosier’s Ghost'.

Sold online for a record $20,000 (£16,340) at the former Butterfields, now Bonhams Los Angeles (27.5/26/20/14.5% buyer’s premium) salerooms as part of the David Lloyd collection of modern literature was a 1909 first edition of Frank L Baum’s 'The Road to Oz'.

Coinex, the most important event on the British calender for many serious coin collectors, opens at the Biltmore Hotel in Mayfair on September 23-24.

An early 19th century child’s mosaic alphabet, c.1820, is estimated at £100- 200 at Catherine Southon’s auction at Farleigh Court on November 16.

The ‘property of a lady’, this concertina-style wallet book by Beatrix Potter, 'The Story of Miss Moppet', is a first edition published by Frederick Warne & Co, London & New York, 1906.

'Laugh now but one day we’ll be in charge' is a Christie’s auction from September 7-21 celebrating editions created in the 21st century by ‘leading artists and sought after new talents’.

The 264 English gold coins in the so-called Ellerby Hoard, uncovered by a Yorkshire family while re-laying a floor in an 18th century home, range from the reign of James I to George I.

Thomas Dangerfield (c.1650-85) was a notorious thief, counterfeiter, highwayman and conspirator who is chiefly remembered for his role in falsely accusing British Roman Catholics as part of the ‘Popish Plot’ of 1678.

Gorringe’s book sale on October 11 in Lewes includes part 1 of the ‘vast selection’ of British topographical works from the library of Dr Brian Austen.

'Catspaws off the Land and Parting with the Tug' are a pair of drypoint etchings by Staithes Group artist Frank Henry Mason (1875-1965), signed in pencil with Fine Art Trade Guild blindstamps, Nos 7 and 8.

Bellmans is holding a special book and manuscript auction as part of the October sales series, on October 11, with the majority of books coming from one collection.

Away from London, some exceptional coin sales coming up in Europe include a number of outstanding British issues.

Assembled over five decades by private collector Martin Burtt, The Glaisdale Agricultural Library on offer at North Yorkshire saleroom Tennants on September 30 includes volumes by the great agricultural writers of the 16th to 19th centuries.

Newcastle auction house Anderson & Garland is holding The Comics Auction on September 28-29.

The October 13 sale of Early Printed Books at Swann Auction Galleries in New York will feature part two of the library of Ken Rapoport: English literature, tales of chivalry from the Renaissance, and more Shakespeare, Chaucer, Cervantes, Donne, and others.