C&T

While classic, vintage and antique cars have a sizeable collecting market, the wider worlds of automobilia and petroliana also attract dedicated enthusiasts with plenty of auctions featuring a variety of lots.

The Voluntary Aid Detachments (VAD) comprised volunteer civilians providing care to British, Empire and allied troops during the First World War, both in field hospitals near to the battlefield and in more established places of recuperation back home.

In May 1930 Amy Johnson (1903-41) set off in a De Havilland Gipsy Moth called Jason to become the first woman to fly solo from Great Britain to Australia. The feat, followed by further long-distance solo and combined flights, earnt her place in aviation history.

Chinese export bowls such as this one, decorated in the mandarin palette with famille rose foxhunting scenes, were popular both with the British and American markets in the last quarter of the 18th century.

As in so many collecting fields, slight variations can be key when it comes to pricing of TV generation toys.

A sword sold at Kent auction house C&T (22% buyer’s premium) belonged to a British Antarctic explorer who died in 1912 – but not with Robert Falcon Scott.

A group of medals awarded to a First World War ‘Tommy’ sold for a mid-estimate £2400 at Kent auction house C&T (22% buyer’s premium) on October 20-21. Not that unusual, it would seem.

The auction at toy specialist C&T (22% buyer’s premium) in Kenardington, Kent, on November 3 included this very rare pair of doll’s shoes dated to c.1700.

This Doll et Cie four-seater open touring car toy, c.1920s, is a live-steam model made in Germany.

Once the humble playthings of boys the world over, airguns now attract a keen collector following.

Convoys to protect merchant vessels have a long history in naval conflict. A letter sold at Kent saleroom C&T (22% buyer’s premium) in a timed Military Books, Ephemera & Photographs Auction reveals Royal Navy ships in action back in 1808.

A Second World War beret sold at a Kent auction was not only one of the famous maroon British paratrooper examples but had star billing of its own.

Baker rifle stands out in Kent saleroom.

Furnished dolls’ houses and accessories in general are proving the most dynamic area of the collecting market

A Dinky Supertoys 935 Leyland Octopus flat truck with chains in its original box sold for £8200 at Kent saleroom C&T (22% buyer’s premium) on January 14.

The strong level of prices being paid by collectors for dolls’ house furniture was underlined at a recent C&T sale.

The Crimea medal awarded to one of only two officers taken prisoner by the Russians during the calamitous Charge of the Light Brigade in 1854 sold for £14,000 at London saleroom Dix Noonan Webb (25% buyer’s premium).

Napoleon Bonaparte’s magnetism remains as forceful as ever in UK salerooms.

A recent sale at C&T in Tunbridge Wells included an unexpected bid of £1700 (estimate £50-70) for three unopened Airfix models.