Collectables

A collector interview with author and expert David Petty

Codex stands out as some of the world’s most important manuscripts come to auction in London

The rarity of an unusual saleroom visitor - and its original condition - was confirmed after research by Bonhams’ arms and armour department.

The swan-form sad iron is a favourite of iron collectors and has been much reproduced.

It’s not often that you hear the phrase “grandmother of the vendor, by repute the first woman in the world to jump through a flaming hoop on the back of a horse”.

Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) epitomised the power of words and, on June 25, that is what bidders had the chance to own in the form of those penned by the political and spiritual leader himself in a letter to his friend, South African architect Hermann Kallenbach (1871-1945).

A pair of pistols Napoleon Bonaparte supposedly intended to use on himself after defeat sold for €1.69m (£1.4m) including buyer’s premium at auction house Osenat in Fontainebleau, France.

Edged weapons have been a strong feature of the market recently and involve a wide range of ages, styles and countries

The building frenzy that followed the British arrival in Hong Kong in 1841 brought added fire risk. Any long spell of dry, windy weather could – and periodically did – prove disastrous.

On July 2, Vienna auction house Tiberius (27% buyer’s premium) sold the inventory of Laudon Castle, a privately owned, moated baroque residence on the outskirts of the Austrian capital.

A private collection of militaria and weapons belonging to a proud Scotsman, Douglas Anderson, comes for sale at Anderson & Garland in Newcastle in the autumn.

Our regular listing of UK and Irish books and works on paper auctions