Collectables

The membership figures for the PBFA (Provincial Booksellers Fairs Association) are looking robust with 25 new members in the past 12 months, bringing the total to around 400.

A group of four lots being sold by the family of the former foreign editor of The Daily Mail includes items relating to the first direct flight across the Atlantic as well as Malcolm Campbell’s Blue Bird 1933 land speed record.

A photo album containing 60 cabinet card photos of late 19th and early 20th century circus acts was among the highlights of an August 27 sale in Sarasota, Florida, conducted by Freedom Auction Company in conjunction with the Circus Historical Society.

Richard Beale, director of the London auction house Roma Numismatics, has pleaded guilty to a series of charges in connection with unlawful sales of ancient coins.

A previously unrecorded 18th century manuscript containing 75 pieces of traditional Scottish music sold for £5000 at Lyon & Turnbull (plus 26% buyer’s premium).

This medieval document with a royal seal attached amounts to a pardon granted by Henry IV (1367-1413) to John Barlawe of the manor of Barlow in Chorlton-Cum-Hardy (now suburban Manchester).

This set of 36 cards is an early edition of what became known as 'Petit Etteilla' cartomancy (fortune-telling) cards.

Extensive selection of the long-running cricket guides on offer at auction runs up a market test

A favourite ring of Sammy Davis Jr sold at Fellows (25% buyer’s premium) in Birmingham on August 24.

These boxed hollow-cast figures of Peter Pan and Captain Hook in a sword fight were made by Sacul in the early 1950s to coincide with the Walt Disney movie release.

A 19th century document referencing Elias Howe Jr’s patent for the first modern sewing machine sold for more than 100 times its estimate at Devin Moisan’s (25% buyer’s premium) sale in Epping, New Hampshire.

Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions

A wistful and chatty letter from Charlotte Brontë to her editor William S Williams comes for sale in California on September 7.

This faded red-brown velvet cap worn by Alfred St George Hamersley (1848-1929) is believed to be the earliest rugby international cap to come to auction.

Latest slice of a ‘magnificent library’ that covered the development of book illustrations