Collectables

FROM a Hampshire cupboard find to “missing link” scientific discovery of a generation. A manuscript minute book kept by Robert Hooke during his years as Secretary to the Royal Society has rapidly and rightly been elevated to scientific sacred relic and national treasure.

Late January/early February has become the new slot for golfiana sales with events held by Bonhams Chester (January 28) and Lyon & Turnbull in Edinburgh (February 7).

Ninety-one-year-old John Werner Kluge is the stuff of the American Dream – a German immigrant who amassed his fortune in the States buying radio and television stations.

WEDNESDAY, December 14 sees Thomas Del Mar Ltd’s inaugural sale of arms and armour at Sotheby’s Olympia.

A poster for the film Metropolis, considered by many to be the holy grail of science fiction posters, has been sold by London dealers The Reel Poster Gallery to a Californian private collector for $690,000 (£390,000).

POLICE are appealing for information following the theft of four stuffed heads of wild animals that were stolen from a Leicestershire house.

The Richmond Gold Cup was one of the great Georgian flat races. Four miles, eight of the finest thoroughbreds of the day, and an ancient course set in the rolling Capability Brown parklands of Aske Hall.

BY IAN MCKAYWRITING about some of the more important items in his peerless private collection of atlases and geographies, the late Lord Wardington said of the Doria Atlas: “I just hope that it... will prove to be as good an investment in the future as I might have made in stocks and shares.”

The Scottish Executive is considering introducing a licensing scheme for the trade in non-domestic knives and banning the sale of swords. Both measures could impact heavily on the antique arms market.

TWO lots stood out among the 600 lots offered at Hampshire. One was an 18th century matched pair of brass barrelled flintlock pistols signed Burnford, London, which, because of a missing ramrod and broken trigger mechanism were catalogued a/f but sold to a collector at a quadruple estimate £1600.

To collectors of the so-called castle-top card cases, subject matter is everything. Pictured here is a great rarity.

Few will be unaware that 2005 is the bicentenary of Nelson’s death at the Battle of Trafalgar, given the number of celebrations and exhibitions commemorating the event.

IT was just three weeks into the First World War when British destroyers engaged the enemy off the Heligoland Bight near Denmark.

The natural desire of a woman to wear the dress of her dreams on her wedding day may be an element of vanity even a Quaker bride cannot completely suppress.

The Yorkshire Dales, have proved a happy hunting ground for Tennants when it comes to selling classic cars and motorbikes.

The specialist British sale held by Spink (15% buyer’s premium) on May 5 consisted exclusively of the collection formed by Samuel King.

A WEEK is a long time in politics, but nowadays the same can be said of sport. As soon as we read about a premiership player confirming his commitment to one club, the next day we see him signing for Chelsea.

Certainly the most eye-catching lot offered by Lincoln saleroom Thos. Mawer and Son (15% buyer’s premium) on April 23 was this carved bone or ivory model of a 1940s Raleigh Roadster bicycle.

ARMS and armour sales, which themselves encompass a myriad special interests, are another area with their own micro-economy impervious to whatever wild winds are blowing in the wider market.

A CHESS sale held by Bloomsbury Auctions on April 14 included a small book section in which a 1745 edition of Philip Stamma’s The Noble Game of Chess, the half calf gilt bindings of the two vols. now a bit loose, sold at £920.