Collectables

If the story of the sinking of the Bismarck in 1941 is well known, the fate of sister ship the Tirpitz is less familiar.

The complete original artworks for two of Edward Ardizzone’s much-loved children’s books were sold for £30,000 apiece at Bonhams (27.5/25/20/13.9% buyer’s premium).

This clockwork monoplane manufactured by Märklin in 1914 was one of numerous early 20th century tin toys made by German manufacturers to celebrate the achievements of the early pioneers of flight.

This rare Umayyad gold dinar dated 105AH (723AD) equalled the auction record for an Islamic coin (or any coin sold in Europe) when it was hammered down at £3.1m at Morton & Eden (20% buyer’s premium).

As ever, the most recent sale held by Dominic Winter (20% buyer’s premium) contained a great many maps and atlases and shown below is one of the highlights.

This bronze Albert Medal, awarded to Lieutenant John Edward Gibbons (1905-71) for saving life at sea, sold for £8000 (plus 20% buyer’s premium) at Bonhams Knightsbridge.

Our regular listing of books and works on paper auctions the UK and Ireland.

International Autograph Auctions Ltd has ceased trading and is being placed in voluntary liquidation.

“As soon as the vendor pulled the board from her bag, I recognised something of serious interest.”

Affirming the strength of the market for the best British milled coins, two exceptional English gold issues were among the top prices of this year’s New York International Numismatic Convention auctions.

‘Masterpieces’ from the celebrated collections of Dr Martin Schøyen offered at a recent Christie’s (25/20/13.5% buyer’s premium) sale in London included some real rarities.

In ATG No 2427 we noted the sale at Sotheby’s on December 10, at a very much higher than expected £50,000, of a rare copy of the 1553 translation into ‘Scots English’ of Virgil’s Aeneid by Gavin Douglas, Bishop of Dunkeld.

Rare book dealer Dr Jörn Günther of Switzerland specialises in manuscripts, miniatures, and rare early printed books from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

Our regular listing of British and Irish book auctions.

Willem Janszoon Blaeu is one of the more famous names in the history of map and globe making and at Christie’s (25/20/13.5/% buyer’s premium), the tiny pocket globe attributed to him shown here was sold for a treble-estimate £230,000.

Extraordinarily high prices paid for the works of the Russian writer Nikolai Stepanovich Gumilev were noted in ATG No 2425, and there were many more lots of interest in the sale held by Christie’s (25/20/13.5% buyer’s premium) in which they were offered.

For a man who has built his career around teddy bears it is a strange quirk of fate that these inoffensive toys make him feel unwell.