Auctioneers

A lampshade painted by Quentin Bell sold for a remarkable £4700 when Adam Partridge (20% buyer’s premium) dispersed the residual collection of Michael Evans in Macclesfield.

A c.1964 publicity photograph signed by all four members of The Beatles sold for £13,000 at Bristol auction house Auctioneum (21% buyer’s premium).

Though largely forgotten today, Lillie Langtry (1853-1929) was probably England’s first superstar, moving effortlessly from the stage to high society.

Top lot in the Potter & Potter (25% buyer’s premium) comics sale featured the debut of Captain America – introduced on the cover punching Hitler.

A “true gentleman”, who was “full of cheerfulness, good humour”, and with a “ready smile”, are some of the words used on rip.ie to describe the late George Mealy, who died on December 22.

The Doll & Bears Sale at Vectis (20.83% buyer’s premium) in Stockton-on-Tees included this rare Disney Donald Duck from the 1930s.

The appeal of more modern toys for the latest collectors buying based on nostalgia for childhood playthings was underlined by a large group of Transformers offered at Special Auction Services on January 17.

Penny in the slot machines known as a ‘Working Model’ came in many guises but, essentially, they all formed a large upright cabinet with a glass window top section.

The earliest records of the silversmithing on the Tyne date from 1249.

Works by Mary Fedden (1915-2012) are a fairly common sight at regional auctions.

Roseberys (26% buyer’s premium) posted the second-highest auction price for Peter Rose Pulham (1910-56) at its most recent sale of Modern British & 20th Century Art.

Dolls’ houses from the collection of a renowned expert and author came to auction in Kent.

This 19th century glazed wooden case containing musket balls, ceramic fragments and three complete clay pipes was eagerly contested at auction.

Special Auction Services is selling what it bills as ‘the largest and most valuable doll collection to been seen at auction for 25 years’.

Roseberys’ (26/25/20% buyer’s premium) final Fine & Decorative sale of the year included this recent charity shop donation: a Nantgarw cabinet plate decorated by Thomas Pardoe (1770-1823).

Spotlight on a couple of shop donations that both ended up making £20,000 hammer prices

The Late John Ruddle Collection of toy soldiers sale held at C&T (22% buyer’s premium) on December 6 was a very special occasion.

A sterling silver scale model of the Lockheed TriStar aircraft was the top lot at Kinghams’ (25% buyer’s premium) Silver and Objects of Vertu sale in the Cotswolds.