East Midlands

“Despite the awful weather we still had over 50 stalls and our indoor venue, the Memorial Hall was packed,” said Sally-Anne Swindell, organiser of the Wirksworth Antiques in the Street’s early April event in the eponymous Peak District market town.

Once ubiquitous in British seaside resorts in their day, many pre-war amusement arcade machines are now so rare that just a handful are recorded.

Winter 2024 turned out to be the wettest ever in the UK - which inevitably threw up significant challenges for fair organisers.

If specialist Karl Martin was the type to take work home with him he’d be in danger of never finding it again.

Memorabilia relating to the Victorian songwriter ‘Claribel’ returned home from Malta to be auctioned in Lincolnshire and were bought by the local museum.

It may have been catalogued as requiring restoration but a “scarce” 19th century Korean helmet still managed to sell for 82 times its low estimate at Hansons (26% buyer’s premium).

The highest price at auction for 12 years for Arthur Foord Hughes (1856-1934) came at Nottingham saleroom Mellors & Kirk (24% buyer’s premium) at the start of the year.

An Arctic fox fur owned and worn by a 1930s movie star dubbed Britain’s answer to Ginger Rogers turned heads at a Derby saleroom.

The small town of Gainsborough in Lincolnshire is the perfect pitstop for antiques and vintage buyers, particularly the trade.

With clients including the Maharajah of Kutch, Queen Victoria and multiple princes and dukes, Holmes & Co was one of the top coachbuilders of the 19th century.

An ‘18th century’ bible turned out to be far more valuable as a first issue King James “He” version

A somewhat innocuous-looking lot at Hansons (26% buyer’s premium) proved to be anything but as a number of eagle-eyed bidders spotted a significant discovery contained therein.

Spotlight on a couple of shop donations that both ended up making £20,000 hammer prices

A huge collection of black and white, celluloid negatives was described by the Lincoln auction house that offered them as a ‘magnificent, massive, eclectic mix of subjects’.

The 1970 World Cup was the breakthrough year for Panini.

Fairs may be hit by snow and other weather hazards but stallholders and intrepid buyers try to carry on regardless.

The new discovery, unveiled on the BBC show Antiques Roadshow on Christmas Eve, comes for sale in Market Harborough on March 5.