Collectables

Naturalist produced a fish-focused work featuring nearly 3000 original watercolours across 50 copies

An FA Cup winner’s medal belonging to a Newcastle United goalkeeper who won the trophy with the Magpies 100 years ago sold for £7800 on June 27.

The 1908 Olympic Games in London included duels with wax bullets, tug of war and the world’s oldest Olympic champion.

A medal awarded to a Suffragette for going on hunger strike hammered down for £17,000 on June 7 at Bonhams (plus 28% buyer’s premium).

Bumper collection of the 18th century creations sold at auction 42 years ago re-emerges in south London

Our regular listing of UK and Irish books and works on paper sales

Only 29 books from the library of John Keats are recorded - among them a 1679 printing of the collected works of the Elizabethan poet Edmund Spenser given to him by the artist Joseph Severn (1793-1879).

The original artwork for 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone' sold at Sotheby’s for $1.6m (£1.3m) plus 20% buyer’s premium in New York on June 26.

Little-known work by the Yorkshire author dating from 1927 is boosted by dedication to Suffragette friend

Our regular listing of UK and Irish books and works on paper auctions

With a rusty blade and seemingly anonymous scabbard, an ornate hilt was the key as to why an Indian tulwar sword estimated at £100-200 instead sold for a huge hammer price of £109,500 (plus 22% buyer’s premium).

Storing a bottle of carbonised mineral water upright often caused the cork to dry out, the gas to escape and the drink to go flat. Persuading a chemist or grocer to store them horizontally proved difficult until the adoption of William Hamilton’s egg-shaped or torpedo bottle.