Latest News Articles by Tom Derbyshire
Flying Scotsman steams to £64,500 nameplate record at Worcestershire auction
26 November 2018An original nameplate for what is probably the most famous steam engine in the world, the Flying Scotsman, has sold for a record price of £64,500 (plus 12% buyer’s premium).
C&T bucks trend by launching antiques and collectors sales
26 November 2018C&T Auctioneers of Kent is launching antiques and collectors sales, with its first taking place on April 3 next year.
Five posters to watch out for at auction and selection of fascinating designs already sold including a hammer horror classic
22 November 2018A look at upcoming stand-out lots in poster sales held around the world, along with a round-up of recent highlights – including a hammer horror classic sold by a London dealer and an Edward Wadsworth design at a Dorset auction.
Flying Scotsman original locomotive nameplate soars to a record high of £64,500 at auction
21 November 2018For what is probably the world’s most famous and popular steam engine, the Flying Scotsman has experienced a remarkably troubled history at times.
Auctions showcase David Bowie as musician, artist and collector
20 November 2018Not only was David Bowie a rather good musician, but he turned his talents to art as well. His diverse talents are encapsulated by two lots sold in separate UK auctions, with the first coming at Suffolk saleroom Bishop & Miller on November 10.
Timely online search enables son to buy back his father's First World War pocket watch
19 November 2018When Alan Wardle’s niece searched online for family history she uncovered his father’s long-lost First World War presentation pocket watch coming up at auction.
Preview: medals sum up the 'world' status of the Great War
19 November 2018Before the Iraq invasions in 1991 and 2003 Britain was involved in military operations in the region in both world wars.
Poster warns of the horror of gas
19 November 2018The new terrors of the First World War also encompassed gas. The initial major attack was launched on the Eastern Front by the Germans in January 1915, then on the Western Front at Ypres three months later against French colonial troops.
Flying high with early relics
19 November 2018In this year also marking the centenary of the RAF, Bosleys’ (20% buyer’s premium) fourth annual sale of aviation collectables on September 13, held in conjunction with (and at) sister auction house Marlows in Stafford, included a large number of related items.
Preview: medal groups of five brothers who served in the Great War, with only two coming home
19 November 2018If anything sums up the sense of slaughter that came from the British experience of the First World War and how that affected so many families, it is a lot coming up in Bonhams’ November 21 Medals, Bonds, Banknotes and Coins auction.
First World War Armistice centenary: We will remember them
19 November 2018The centenary of the Armistice has been marked by the appearance of some poignant lots at auction revealing the human cost.
Machine guns gain dedicated units
19 November 2018As soon as the devastating power of machine guns in the First World War became clear, the British Army abandoned its earlier policy of attaching a section of just two guns to each infantry battalion or cavalry regiment.
Sale forms tribute to a true militaria expert
19 November 2018C&T Auctioneers’ (20% buyer’s premium) November 6 sale titled After the Great War Centenary also marked the final slice of a three-part offering of what specialist Matthew Tredwen called “one of the finest collections of First World War German militaria to have been sold at auction in the UK”.
Measuring up for Great War action
19 November 2018Such was the scale of the Great War that the Cameronians regiment alone raised 27 battalions from 1914-18.
First World War: they also served
19 November 2018British Empire soldiers included more than a million Indian Army troops serving overseas.
First World War veteran was also Polar explorer
19 November 2018The ‘heroic age’ of Polar Exploration coincided with the First World War. Shackleton’s perilous 1914-17 expedition was conducted against the backdrop of war in the northern hemisphere, while other earlier Polar explorers found themselves caught up in the conflict.
Exhibition marks special RAF centenary
19 November 2018In April this year Spink held an exhibition to mark the centenary of the founding of the RAF, ahead of a dedicated section in its two-day Orders, Decorations and Medals sale the same month.
Engineer works out how to keep a torpedo straight
19 November 2018It was a British engineer, Robert Whitehead (1823-1905) – working in Austria at the instigation of the Austrian Navy – who developed the first self-propelled torpedo in the 1850s.
War’s human cost after the battle ends
19 November 2018The vast human toll of the First World War did not end with the Armistice. On New Year’s Eve 2018 Oberleutnant Friedrich Ritter Von Röth committed suicide at the age of 25, as a result of being shattered at Germany’s defeat.
On a wing and a prayer: the early war in the air
19 November 2018A Distinguished Flying Cross medal group offered at Stroud Auctions (18% buyer’s premium) on November 7-8 underlines the sometimes rudimentary nature of the embyonic early war in the air.