Nesbits

In 1888, in response to a tender issued by the War Office, Prof Archibald Barr and Dr William Stroud submitted an application for an optical range-finder patent to the Patents Office.

A cigarette box engraved with the facsimile signature Captain Falcon Scott may have been a piece the Antarctic hero gave to a fellow explorer he offended.

Watch parts such as replacement dials, cases and hands from well-known models can add up to a lot of interest at auction, as recent results show.

As part of their first world tour, The Beatles played the Princess Theatre in Hong Kong twice in June 1964.

Two pieces of seating furniture which no early 20th century wealthy middle-class home would have lacked went comfortably over estimates at sales from Hampshire to Yorkshire in May.

A Charles-Francois Daubigny (1817-78) painting that had been in the same private collection since 1963 topped Nesbits’ (19% buyer’s premium) sale in Portsmouth on May 17.