Auctions

Relatively few gallantry medals available for what was short self-contained conflict, heroic stories involving highly collectable regiments, a relatively morally unambiguous backstory (for British collectors at least)… the Falklands War can generate high demand at auction.

Much, much earlier than most other entries in a comics and comic art sale that ran at Heritage (25% buyer’s premium) from September 30 to October 2 were examples of the work of Winsor McCay (c.1866-67-1934), who was well known as an accomplished editorial and political cartoonist and for his work in the world of animation and cartoon strips.

The big attraction in a job lot estimated at £60-100 that went on to sell for £14,000 in a September 23 sale held by Ewbank’s (25% buyer’s premium) was a copy of Britannia: or, a Chorographical Description…, Dr Edmund Gibson’s 1695, updated and English language version of a well-known earlier work.

A selection of 12 upcoming lots from auctions taking place around the UK and Ireland.

When Bill Speakman won his Victoria Cross on November 4, 1951, fighting beside him was Corporal John Pender.

A couple of weeks after the Aguttes watches auction another collection in the same category went under the hammer in Paris.

A police ledger sold more than triple its top estimate featured original mug shots and criminal records relating to 500 people including a woman accused of plotting to kill Prime Minister David Lloyd George in 1917.

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.

In the early 1930s, following the closure of its ironstone mines, unemployment in the east Cleveland region of North Yorkshire reached a harrowing 90%.

A George III mahogany china cabinet became one of the most expensive pieces of English furniture ever sold when it took $2.2m (£2m) during the opening salvos of Christie’s New York sale of the Ann and Gordon Getty collection.

A microscope used by Joseph Banks (1743-1820) on Captain Cook’s first Voyage of Discovery (1768-71) is going under the hammer estimated at £30,000-50,000 on November 1.

A vast collection of Royal Worcester porcelain put together by an Australian couple during frequent trips to UK dealers and auction houses is up for sale next month.

Despite wider economic uncertainty, prices for LS Lowry (1887-1976) seem to keep on rising.

The sale of Silver and Objects of Vertu at Bonhams Knightsbridge on October 20-21 was topped by a multi-estimate bid for a remarkable flatware service by Tiffany.

Charles de Temple is much admired as a key figure in the British 1960s modernist movement – one of the designers who ushered bold and abstract jewellery to the forefront of fashion.

Leading the sale of Fine Furniture, Works of Art & Clocks at Woolley & Wallis (25/12% buyer’s premium) in Salisbury on October 6 was a very fine pair of blue john and ormolu perfume burners by Matthew Boulton and John Fothergill.