Collectables

The highlight of a £75,000, 30-lot private collection of Robert Thompson oak carvings sold by Tennants was an anthropomorphic figure of The Mouseman of Kilburn.

Georgian silver bow corkscrews by Dublin makers are rare beasts and appeal to both silver collectors and helixophiles.

This George III silver table snuff box by Phipps and Robinson, London 1814, is engraved to the cover with a plan of the battle of Talavera in the Peninsular War.

This Victorian silver and enamel cigarette box is decorated to the lid with humorous scene from John Surtees’ Jorrocks, Jaunts and Jollities.

Dunhill Aquarium table lighters painted by Margaret Bennett and husband Alan in the 1950s-60s remain popular among collectors in these non-smoking days.

With all 80 lots getting away – 79 to a single UK collector – a group of walking sticks totalled more than £40,000 at Charterhouse (25% buyer’s premium).

A copy of the very first issue of Captain America soared to £320,000 (£235,640) at Heritage Auctions.

Georg Siegmund Stobwasser (1717-76) and his son Johann Heinrich (1740-1829) were among many craftsmen who moved to Brunswick during the Seven Years’ War.

The Cluny Museum in Paris, dedicated to works of art from the Middle Ages, pre-empted two items in a Pierre Bergé & Associes sale of Haute Epoque in Paris.

On February 25 Doyle in New York will be selling the single-owner Joseph and Miriam Poser Collection of English and American silver card and vesta cases.

The luxury perfumery l’Officina Profuma Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella in Florence is considered the oldest pharmacy in the world.

The highlight of a private collection of Robert Thompson oak carvings to be offered by Tennants on March 6 is this curious anthropomorphic figure of the ‘Mouseman of Kilburn’.

A sledge and flag from the first expedition to the Antarctic led by Ernest Shackleton have been saved for the nation.

Lots of souvenirs were produced referencing the Battle of Culloden on April 16, 1746 – the final confrontation of the Jacobite rising of 1745 and the last pitched battle fought on British soil.

Fat Sod, Skinhead, Colin the Amiable Crocodile and Victor Pratt the Stupid Twat were introduced to the public in the form of a comic offered in a Newcastle pub in December 1979. Forty-one years later that comic is still going strong: Viz.

The Cotswolds Art and Antiques Dealers Association (CADA) is taking to Instagram to give its members a boost before the festive season.