Collectables

The commercial fortunes of a 19th century map of the Arctic offered at Cheffins (25% buyer’s premium) this month were boosted greatly by its annotations.

Varied group of items related to the poet appeared for sale in Somerset

Ceramic phrenology heads have become ubiquitous following numerous reproductions. However, original 19th century models are much harder to come by.

Dating from March 1-October 13, 1748, a journal for sale at London maritime specialist Charles Miller’s auction on April 23 was written by Admiral John Byng (1704-57) during the final negotiations of the failed Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle and some eight years before his infamous actions off the coast of Minorca.

The invention of the megalethoscope by the Swiss-Italian optician and photographer Carlo Ponti greatly enhanced the experience of viewing photographs.

Austin Farahar, head of cameras and photography at Chiswick Auctions (25% buyer’s premium), was recently contacted by a budding documentary photographer in Vienna who had received a collection of old cameras from his in-laws.

Perfect to impress your friends and family – or annoy them – many vintage jukeboxes can be bought at auction for three or four figures depending on age, model and condition.

Once ubiquitous in British seaside resorts in their day, many pre-war amusement arcade machines are now so rare that just a handful are recorded.

Our regular listing of books and works on paper sales

The astrolabe was used for not only telling the time, but mapping one’s location, tracking the stars, and even as an astrological tool for decision-making.

This Victorian lacquered brass device made by Elliot Brothers of London is a reflecting goniometer.

Knowledgeable bidders generated high prices for early typewriters at German technology specialist’s latest sale

Twenty-six lots in the Science, Natural History and Curiosities sale at Burstow & Hewett (20% buyer’s premium) in Battle were previously owned by local botanist and entomologist George West.

Priced 10 cents when it appeared in 1938, a copy of Action Comics No 1 which introduced Superman has become the world’s most valuable comic book.

'Moulin Rouge, La Goulue' was Henri Toulouse-Lautrec’s first commissioned poster and it launched his poster-making career overnight.

Though the performer is largely forgotten today, two Bénévol-related items appeared at Bernaerts (25% buyer’s premium) in Antwerp as part of a Circus & Magic sale.

Leading Forum’s (30/24/14.4% buyer’s premium inc VAT) March 27 auction of more books from the remarkable library of Norman Bobins was a complete copy of a German work following the course of the Danube from its source to the Black Sea.

Around 28 American-built Wurlitzers were originally transported to Britain from 1925 until just before the Second World War.

Although easily mistaken for railway or ship lamps, this pair of brass and iron lanterns were made for a road locomotive: the steam-driven traction engines that were some of the first powered vehicles to travel on Britain’s highways.

This aristocratic survivor from the ‘brass and glass’ era of microscope making, a version of Powell & Lealand’s famous ‘No 1’ compound monocular and binocular microscope, is dated 1898.