Features

With the most sought-after Lalique glass car mascots making prices up to tens of thousands of pounds at auction, collecting in that market can become very expensive very quickly if you want a wide range.

First introduced by British Railways in 1962-64 and withdrawn between 1973-77, the short-lived Class 52 diesel hydraulic locomotive has gained something of a cult status among enthusiasts.

Inspired by developments across the Channel, 19th century English clockmakers quickly adopted this the portable timepiece known as the carriage clock. Today the finest examples from the 19th and early 20th century are in strong demand

The latest Special Antiques Sale at TW Gaze (22% buyer’s premium) in Diss included this rare Ralph Gout of London gilt brass horse-rider’s pedometer watch.

A longcase clock from the English Golden Age sold for £90,000 at Hutchinson Scott (25% buyer’s premium) in Skipton, North Yorkshire.

If the period from the 19th to early 20th century was the ‘golden age’ for carriage clocks, it was equally a superb age for pocket watches

While London throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries produced much fine watchmaking, Paris could also lay claim to some of the limelight.

Very little is known about the late-18th century London maker John Grantham other than that he made many watches for the Chinese market, one of which came up for sale at Cortrie (21% buyer’s premium) in Hamburg.

A private collection of 17th century lantern and longcase clocks recently came for sale at Dawsons (27.5% buyer’s premium) in Maidenhead.

Discovered as a ‘box of bits’ in the late 1960s when clearing the attic of a London residence, a ‘First Period’ lantern clock was placed in storage until being put back together in the 1980s.

Georgian regalia from two famous Scottish regiments was sold by Railtons (20% buyer’s premium) in Wooler, Northumberland, on February 20.

Medals expert familiar to millions through the Antiques Roadshow chats about his latest book telling a very personal story.

A medal with nine clasps from a soldier who was wounded in the head and twice in the thigh during the Peninsular War stood out in a recent sale held by Stanley Gibbons Baldwin’s (23% buyer’s premium).

Latest result for a ‘not in the face of the enemy’ award underlines how such honours have become a popular collecting field

If you look closely at both Lady Butler and Alphonse de Neuville’s paintings of what is probably the most famous British colonial action of the 19th century – Rorke’s Drift – you can pick out a man with a long, thick red beard wearing a blue tunic.

Despite the brief cataloguing of lot 129 in the Ellis Willis & Beckett (21.5% buyer’s premium) sale, the £4200 hammer price on February 17 indicated that bidders had fought it out for something special.

Following Operation Barbarossa, Germany’s invasion of Russia, Winston Churchill proposed the Arctic Convoys to deliver supplies to the Soviet Union via Iceland.

The golden age of topaz was the 18th and early 19th century.

Stand-out lots from seven upcoming sales