Atypical watercolour of steam and sail-powered shipping in an estuary by the prolific maritime artist William Lionel Wyllie (1851-1931), signed and dated lower right, is guided at £400-600 at Cotswold Auction Company in Cheltenham on December 17.
Measuring 6½ x 19in (16 x 47cm), it is housed in its original gilt frame with gilt slip.
cotswoldauction.co.uk or see this item on thesaleroom.com
The Liverpool Overhead Railway (known locally as the ‘Dockers’ Umbrella’) operated along the Liverpool Docks from 1893-1956.
It was the first electric elevated railway and the first to use automatic colour light signals, and was home to one of the first passenger escalators at a railway station.
A poster printed by The Liverpool Printing & Stationery Co promising Unrivalled Views of Dockland and Shipping carries an estimate of £400-600 on day two of the Trains Galore sale at Special Auction Services in Newbury on December 18. A label affixed to the poster amends the ticket prices to First Class 1/8 Third Class 1/4.
specialauctionservices.com or see this item on thesaleroom.com
This pastel and paper sketch above, of a young girl in Dutch costume seated in a meadow, is by Scottish artist Robert Gemmell Hutchison (1855-1936).
Signed and measuring 11½ x 7½in (29 x 19cm), it is estimated at £500-800 in a timed auction held by McTear’s in Glasgow closing on the evening of December 15.
A First World War Military Cross group and personal items belonging to a descendant of Captain Angus McKenzie Forsyth are estimated at £700-1000 in the Charterhouse December 12-13 collector’s auction in Sherborne.
Born in Nottingham in 1893, Capt Forsyth worked as an accountant before enlisting with the Notts & Derbyshire Regiment in September 1914. His career is documented in a war diary – the last entry for November 25, 1917, reading: “I join the 20th Officer Cadet Battalion at Crookham, where I remain until the end of my soldiering.”
His medals and diary will be offered together with sword and scabbard, a pair of horse-riding spurs, his silver cigarette box monogramed with his initials, a press cutting and medallions.
charterhouse-auction.com or see this item on thesaleroom.com
Copies of two of the Cottingley Fairies photographs form part of the December 13 sale at Moore Allen & Innocent in Cirencester.
The photographs, first published in 1917, were the creation of cousins Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths of Cottingley, Yorkshire, who only admitted to the hoax in the 1980s. At the time they were hailed as genuine by many, including Sherlock Holmes creator and spiritualist Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
These examples, made in very limited numbers c.1920 to be sold at theosophical lectures, come from a relative of the Rev George Vale Owen, a well-known early-20th century spiritualist and Conan Doyle associate.
Alice and the Fairies, featuring nine-year-old Frances, is expected to achieve £1000-1500, while pictured above is Iris and the Gnome, posed by 16-year-old Elsie, estimated at £500-800.
mooreallen.co.uk or see this item on thesaleroom.com
