This boxed Star Wars Palitoy depicts the character Walrus Man, a burly Aqualish thug later renamed Ponda Baba who features in the first film A New Hope. A smuggler for the Tatooine crime lord Jabba the Hutt, he unwisely picks a fight with Luke Skywalker in the famous Mos Eisley cantina scene and has his arm cut off by Obi-Wan Kenobi who comes to Skywalker’s aid.
The toy comes with its unpunched 20-character back card, suggesting it was never displayed in a shop, and is estimated at £600-900 in a sale at Bishop & Miler on May 17 in Stowmarket, Suffolk.
bishopandmillerauctions.co.uk or see this item on thesaleroom.com
An auction of Costume, Accessories and Textiles at Tennants on May 18 will include a collection of 17th century and later needle works and samplers collected over a lifetime by the late J Orskey, who lived in Stow-on-the-Wold, Gloucestershire.
A highlight from the group is this small 17th century needlework panel of a man and woman dressed in possibly Dutch or Flemish costume. Embellished with pearl and coral beads, the 6 x 9½in (15 x 24cm) piece is glazed to the back as well as the front, revealing more designs on the verso.
Estimate £500-800.
The black and white engraved scenes on this early pack of English playing cards were used as a form of propaganda to justify the Glorious Revolution, which led to King James II’s abdication and the accession of Mary II and William III of Orange.
Several of the illustrations play on James’ leanings towards Roman Catholicism and his close ties with France to justify the Dutch invasion and his removal from the English throne. The Ace of Spades (pictured bottom right) features the financial support – £500,000 according to the card – that had been sent annually from France to support the monarchy during the reign of Charles II.
Estimated at £500-800, the 49 cards are some of the earliest in a large private collection of playing cards that have been consigned to a May 8-10 sale at Stroud Auction Rooms in Gloucestershire.
This gold brooch for the Caterpillar Club – an informal association founded in Canada for people who have successfully used a parachute to bail out of a disabled aircraft – is believed to have been assigned to Sgt Frederick Gordon Spanner, a Second World War Flying Officer in the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF).
Spanner received several medals including the Distinguished Flying Cross for his service to the RCAF and is known to have escaped disabled aircrafts on multiple occasions. He was killed in action in 1943 during an attempt to bomb Berlin.
The brooch is engraved to the back with Sgt FG Spanner and carries an estimate of £400-600 in an auction of Fine Jewellery at Fellows in Birmingham on May 16.
fellows.co.uk or see this item on thesaleroom.com
