Reeman Dansie

Lot offers US editions of two science-fiction and fantasy classics by the US writer

Thought by the auction house to be an early copy, a letter that details the horrors of the ‘Black Hole of Calcutta’ in 1756 was sold for £2900.

A few copies have made a little more, but the example of the original, 1826, folio edition of Jacob George Strutt’s 'Sylva Britannica, or Portraits of Forest Trees…' included in a November 8 sale at Reeman Dansie (20% buyer’s premium) sold for £3500 (guide £600-800).

A rediscovered album of 19 cartes de visite portrait photographs documenting Charles Darwin’s changing visage over three decades sold for £126,000.

Trio of paintings depict life at a long-disappeared family home

Works from the 1930s are arguably the most desirable pictures when it comes to Oldham-born artist James Fitton (1899-1982). They just do not appear very often.

Estimated at £600-800, a 1777 first in marbled board covers of John Chapman and Peter Andre’s 'Map of the County of Essex from an Actual Survey' was sold for what would appear to be an auction record.

An album of 19 carte de visite portrait photographs of Charles Darwin is offered in Reeman Dansie’s Fine Art auction on November 8-9.

Largest group of artist’s works to be offered was consigned to Essex auction house by daughter.

Returning to auction for the second time in a year, this still-life by Mary Fedden (1915- 2012) fetched £15,500 at Reeman Dansie (20% buyer’s premium).

Works offered in Essex saleroom belonged to ‘capable, colourful and forceful’ professor

Spirit of Ecstasy has adorned the bonnet of every Rolls-Royce motor car since February 6, 1911.

Toadstones are understood to be the button-like palatal teeth of lepidotes, an extinct genus of ray finned fish from the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods.

A sale of royal memorabilia at Colchester saleroom Reeman Dansie (20% buyer’s premium) on February 15 included items from the estate of Miss Beryl Poignand (1887-1965), governess and confidante to HM Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother.

Auction figures for firms outside London show a shake-up of the status quo

The V&A loses out in £23,000 bidding battle for Prince Albert’s drawings of the diamond and sapphire coronet he designed for Queen Victoria.

This Ford Escort once owned by Diana, Princess of Wales, has been bought by a museum in Chile.

A New and Correct Plan of the Cities of London, Westminster and Borough of Southwark sold at Reeman Dansie (20% buyer’s premium) of Colchester was offered on behalf of an un-named charity.

While Georgian spectacles are relatively common at auction, 17th century examples are a rarer beast.