Collectables

Among a 200-lot list of vinyl records by a galaxy of rock and pop stars, punk provided the outstanding performance at Cottees’ (18% buyer’s premium) specialist sale at Poole.

The first 20 lots of the recent football memorabilia sale at Stacey’s in Rayleigh, Essex came from the family of the Edwardian player Benjamin Warren (1879-1917).

One of the highlights of actor Peter Wyngarde’s estate sale held live, online-only at East Bristol Auctions (18% buyer’s premium) was a Beatles concert poster from 1963.

Puritan Cotton Mather’s defence of executions is latest work on the subject to surface.

Books, catalogues, ephemera, pictures and other material from the collections of the Shorthorn Society of the United Kingdom & Ireland formed a significant part of a recent Carlisle sale.

Offered without a reserve, a job lot of “low grade” comics dating from the 1940s-50s ended up selling for £1200 in a Comic Book Auctions (19% buyer’s premium) timed sale on thesaleroom.com.

Objects relating to the rich history of Malta are perennial favourites at auction. This large early 18th century oil on canvas depicting a map of islands in the Maltese archipelago proved particularly popular in a sale of 15th to 19th century pictures held by Lempertz in Cologne.

The popular Chinese game of mah-jong is a relative newcomer.

Key to a price tag of £95,000 for a slightly bumped first impression copy of 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone' offered in a recent Bonhams sale lay in an inscription.

This rare poster for 'The Invisible Man', the 1933 Universal Studios horror film, realised a hammer price of $152,000 (£132,175) in Heritage Auctions’ Movie Poster sale in Dallas.

A very early railway guide, still in the original decorative boards, was a rare and unusual lot in a recent held by Mullock’s (20% buyer’s premium).

Association with the name boosts value as part of a sale dedicated to the poet.

Comprising essays by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay, all of which were published under the same pen name, ‘Publius’, The Federalist: A Collection of Essays, Written in Favour of the New Constitution… is a key American contribution to political theory.

Sold at $60,000 (£46,295) in a recent New York sale was a broadside, Noticia Estraordinaria, printed in Mexico City in 1836, that brought news of the fall of the Alamo in March of that year.

British and Irish book auctions, March 31-April 11, 2020.