Auctions

ATG’s pick of auction lots bought by internet bidders on thesaleroom.com, featuring both the highest prices over-estimate and the top prices paid online.

The astrolabe was used for not only telling the time, but mapping one’s location, tracking the stars, and even as an astrological tool for decision-making.

Austin Farahar, head of cameras and photography at Chiswick Auctions (25% buyer’s premium), was recently contacted by a budding documentary photographer in Vienna who had received a collection of old cameras from his in-laws.

Our selection of lots from 13 upcoming auctions

Though the performer is largely forgotten today, two Bénévol-related items appeared at Bernaerts (25% buyer’s premium) in Antwerp as part of a Circus & Magic sale.

'Moulin Rouge, La Goulue' was Henri Toulouse-Lautrec’s first commissioned poster and it launched his poster-making career overnight.

Dating from March 1-October 13, 1748, a journal for sale at London maritime specialist Charles Miller’s auction on April 23 was written by Admiral John Byng (1704-57) during the final negotiations of the failed Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle and some eight years before his infamous actions off the coast of Minorca.

Knowledgeable bidders generated high prices for early typewriters at German technology specialist’s latest sale

A group of seven works by George Spencer Watson (1869-1934) provided a boost to Minster Auctions’ (20% buyer’s premium) recent two-day sale of fine art and antiques.

Almost 3ft (90cm) wide and weighing a massive 710oz, this Edwardian wine cistern is marked for Garrard & Co, London, 1903.

This aristocratic survivor from the ‘brass and glass’ era of microscope making, a version of Powell & Lealand’s famous ‘No 1’ compound monocular and binocular microscope, is dated 1898.

Although easily mistaken for railway or ship lamps, this pair of brass and iron lanterns were made for a road locomotive: the steam-driven traction engines that were some of the first powered vehicles to travel on Britain’s highways.

Around 28 American-built Wurlitzers were originally transported to Britain from 1925 until just before the Second World War.

Once ubiquitous in British seaside resorts in their day, many pre-war amusement arcade machines are now so rare that just a handful are recorded.

Varied group of items related to the poet appeared for sale in Somerset

One of the most important groups of works by the artists’ colony to emerge recently indicates level of demand in this market

Leading Forum’s (30/24/14.4% buyer’s premium inc VAT) March 27 auction of more books from the remarkable library of Norman Bobins was a complete copy of a German work following the course of the Danube from its source to the Black Sea.

Priced 10 cents when it appeared in 1938, a copy of Action Comics No 1 which introduced Superman has become the world’s most valuable comic book.

Our regular listing of books and works on paper sales

This Victorian lacquered brass device made by Elliot Brothers of London is a reflecting goniometer.