Cheshire

A football medal sold at a Cheshire auction house was so early in date that it was only the 13th time the FA Cup final had been contested, the game was played at Kennington Oval and the opposition was a Scottish team.

The Cheshire showground event run by Arthur Swallow includes plenty of conversation starters.

This medieval document with a royal seal attached amounts to a pardon granted by Henry IV (1367-1413) to John Barlawe of the manor of Barlow in Chorlton-Cum-Hardy (now suburban Manchester).

When the (Louis) Marx toy company produced a friction-drive model Batmobile in the 1960s the plastic car that resulted was really a model of the 1951 General Motors Le Sabre concept show car designed by Harley Earl.

Thousands of items are available to buy from dealers online. Here we pick out one that caught our eye this week.

“All things considered, it’s been a pretty good year and we have high hopes of 2023 being a cracker”, enthused Richard Burgoin, director of Arthur Swallow Fairs as he looked back at its fairs and markets in 2022.

Thousands of items are available to buy from dealers online. Here we pick out one that caught our eye this week.

Over the course of 35 years Andy Houldsworth amassed one of the largest collections of Action Man and similar action figures in the UK.

Although the box to this bronze medal is dated 1873 (leading the auction house to conclude it was Victorian), the piece itself was struck in 1760.

The sale at The Auction Centre (20% buyer’s premium) in Runcorn, Cheshire, on September 30 included this rare George III Scottish silver member’s badge for The Edinburgh Skating Club – the world’s first figure skating organisation.

A substantial collection of works by just one multi-talented and enormously influential figure was presented as part of series of sales held by Adam Partridge (20% buyer’s premium) in its Macclesfield rooms.

Anti-slavery objects are enjoying a particular strong moment in the market as museums at home and in the US seek to fill holes in collections vulnerable to the label ‘pale, male and stale’.

Another high price for Helen Bradley (1900-79) came at Cheshire saleroom Wilson55 (22% buyer’s premium) last month.

Thousands of items are available to buy from dealers online. Here we pick out one that caught our eye this week.

The expansion in prices for David Hockney (b.1937) has affected not just his large and famous works which now sell for multi-millions but also his smaller drawings and printed works that fall further down the price scale.

A work by the prolific Helen Bradley (1900-79) drew interest at the latest Northern Art sale held by Wilson55 (22% buyer’s premium) in Nantwich, Cheshire.

If a full-size Victoria Cross medal group is beyond your price range, a lot sold at Adam Partridge (20% buyer’s premium inc VAT) is perhaps the next best thing.