Auctions

Many talented footballers had their careers interrupted or even curtailed by the world wars. Although Allenby Chilton is not exactly a household name, not many players featured in both a Manchester United title-winning side and the D-Day Normandy landings.

A group of five rare bronzes by Joseph Durham (1814- 77) from the Gould collection will be offered at The Canterbury Auction Galleries on November 26-27.

Sometimes it’s easy to forget that the football league in Scotland has not always been dominated by Celtic and Rangers. The last time a team outside the Old Firm won the title was Aberdeen in 1985.

Peter Dingley (1923-2018), who died last year aged 95, is a name synonymous with the best of modern British craft. David Whiting, author of 'Modern British Potters & Their Studios' (2009), described him as “a remarkable member of the small band of post-war pioneering gallerists who supported British ceramics”.

A yellow Tour de France jersey once worn in the gruelling race by the legendary Belgian cyclist Eddy Merckx (b.1945) sold for a mid-estimate hammer price of £7000 at Rogers Jones (18% buyer’s premium inc VAT) on June 14.

Oktoberfest, the world’s largest volksfest held annually in Bavaria in September and October, is just one reason to travel to Germany in the autumn. Another is the plethora of auctions held in what is traditionally a busy season for the country’s salerooms

Rugby is said to be akin to a religion in Wales and Cardiff saleroom Rogers Jones (18% buyer’s premium inc VAT) has scored impressively in recent years with related lots – such as the auction record for a shirt.

This late 9ct gold Football League medal was awarded to Billy Bassett (1869-1937), one of the best-known footballers of the late Victorian era.

From a 5000-year-old pictographic tablet to a 5th century bible leaf - a small but fascinating London auction.

Even though the Bauhaus design school was forcibly closed in 1933, its influence continues to this day.

Estimated at £400-600, a Chinese porcelain vase was bid to £1.3m at an auction in Hampshire last week.

This Italian marble bust of an emperor, catalogued as 17th century after the antique, provided a moment of saleroom drama at Sworders’ Fine Interiors auction in Stansted on September 10.

A gold, jade and rock crystal model of a sedan chair by Fabergé was hammered down at £380,000 last week – a new house record for a Gloucestershire auctioneer.

George du Maurier (1834-96) joined the staff at Punch magazine in 1865, drawing two ink cartoons a week until his eyesight deteriorated in 1891. His most common targets were the affected manners of Victorian society and Britain’s growing middle class in particular.

Sotheby’s opened its September Asia Week auctions in New York on September 10 with the $8.3m sale of Chinese art consigned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Boosted by the ‘wrong therefore rare’ factor – so important in the world of collectables – a 1977 British quad film poster for the first Star Wars film took top billing in a 250-lot specialist sale at Ewbank’s (24% buyer’s premium).