Denver, Colorado, founded in 1858 as a mining town, quickly attracted saloons, bars and casinos to help prospectors spend their gold or drown their sorrows.
This roulette wheel above was made by George Mason & Company which was based there from 1890-1910. Stamped with the maker’s mark and the serial number 1079, it carries an estimate of £1000-1500 at Tayler & Fletcher’s Fine Art & Antiques Sale in Bourton-on-the-Water, Gloucestershire, on October 17. It comes for sale from a professional croupier who has owned it for more than 30 years.
Roseberys London’s latest Prints & Multiples sale on October 14 includes Wang Guangyi’s (b.1957) 2002 lithograph Coca Cola (red). The work comes from the artist’s Great Criticism series which juxtaposed images from Cultural Revolution propaganda with famous Western commercial logos.
Guangyi began this cycle in 1990 and ended it in 2007 when he became convinced that its international success had begun to compromise the original meaning of the works. Estimate £800-1200.
A rare pair of Napoleonic bear jugs and covers c.1815-20, for sale at Woolley & Wallis in Salisbury on October 15, is probably Scottish.
One is modelled as a Russian bear holding Napoleon Bonaparte tight between its paws, the other gripping a figure thought to be his general Marshal Michel Ney.
Jugs of this type were in production prior to Napoleon’s defeat at the hands of the Russians and would have caused much merriment in British taverns of the time. Estate £1200-1500.
A case of Australasian birds dating from c.1900 is included in Tennants’ Natural History sale in Leyburn on October 30. Mounted by Charles Kirk (1872-1922) of Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, the rare species in the case include a magnificent riflebird, a ragiana bird of paradise and a spangled drongo. Estimate £1000-1500.
Two sizes of posters were commissioned by the Uruguayan Football Federation for the first (1930) FIFA World Cup. The official poster designed by the graphic artist Guillermo Laborde was printed in colour but it was accompanied by a smaller monochrome version carrying the official stamp of the Comite Ejecutivo.
This example of the latter above was sourced in Montevideo from a descendant of Olivera y Fernande, the original publisher of the poster.
At Chiswick Auctions’ sale of Autographs & Memorabilia on October 16 the estimate is £800-1200.
A plaque to the back of this 19th century gold-framed classical cameo above is marked Gaunt – for the Melbourne jeweller Thomas Gaunt & Co.
Gaunt (1829-90) was born in London but emigrated to the colony of Victoria in 1852, later opening a shop on Bourke Street selling clocks, instruments and jewellery. Estimate £1000-1500 at Semley Auctioneers in Shaftesbury, Dorset, on October 12.
This 66th Foot Regiment Afghanistan Medal above was awarded to Private Thomas O’Neil who was killed in action on July 27, 1880, in the Battle of Maiwand.
It is offered for sale complete with copies of his documents and a Maiwand book in which he is mentioned at Special Auction Services in Newbury on October 15. It is part of a private collection of more than 100 lots of military and police service medals assembled by the vendor over 20 years.
Estimate £1500-1800.
This wicker armchair above was from the verandah café of the RMS Lusitania. The chair itself was recovered shortly after the Lusitania sank, torpedoed by a German U-boat on May 7, 1915. The vendor’s grandfather, a school teacher on Sherkin Island, recovered the chair when it was washed ashore after the disaster.
A signed letter of provenance accompanies the relic that carries an estimate of £2000-3000 at Titanic and White Star memorabilia specialist Henry Aldridge & Son in Devizes on October 19.
