Auction Reports

Porcelain from the Staffordshire factory takes up half a sale – and it’s just the first part of a huge collection

At the same time as a naval arms race was taking place in the years just before the First World War another maritime competition developed in the shape of liners.

The most desirable element of a collection of 18th century white-glazed porcelain figures offered by Reeman Dansie (22.5% buyer’s premium) in Colchester was the Meissen group known as Two Freemasons.

Pair of rare and early French examples offered separately create a bidding frenzy despite condition issues

An autographed photograph of Charles Darwin (1809-82) described as “very scarce” by Hansons (26.5% buyer’s premium) sold for £8500.

The Alfred Jewel is a famous piece of Anglo-Saxon goldsmith craftmanship, a gold-mounted piece of rock crystal enamelled with a portrait of a man and the inscription translating as ‘Alfred ordered me to be made’.

A gold and cameo ring offered with an estimate of just £200-300 at Derbyshire auction house Irita Marriott (plus 28.8% buyer’s premium inc VAT) and catalogued as 19th century caught the eye of a number of jewellery dealers and bidders from as far as Paris and the US.

“Siege notes are a niche but popular subsidiary of military banknote collecting,” says Andrew Pattison, head of the Banknotes Department at Noonans (24% buyer’s premium).

Strong bidding emerged at Lawrences (25% buyer’s premium) of Crewkerne for a Swedish portrait of Ellen Wester (1873-1930), a pioneering female translator and journalist.

Count Manfredi Della Gherardesca 's collection offers old and new mix of more than 400 varied lots

Medal group sold for £43,000 at a Devon sale recognised the bravery of a medic who cared for others

'Large and comprehensive' was the apt description used by Tennants (24% buyer’s premium) for a collection of British Railways photographs and slides offered on April 3.

This Huntley & Palmers factory fire service helmet with white metal mounts and H&P monogram was the highlight of a collection offered at Kent saleroom Bentley’s (20% buyer’s premium) on May 15.

“An impressively sized fine and rare” coin-operated upright 22in Polyphon Disk Musical Box-on-Discbin sold for £5500 in Tennants’ (24% buyer’s premium) Scientific & Musical Instruments Sale on May 15.

The importance of an original box in good condition to the value of a toy is well known. But what about a display without any toy in sight, box or no box?

News that Celtic and Rangers no longer automatically qualify for the Champions League next season put a bit of a dampener on Scottish football.

Sports stars are always looking for small incremental improvements in performance that can prove crucial to the result.

When West Bromwich Albion player John Wile was photographed with a bloodied shirt and bandaged head during the 1978 FA Cup semi-final against Ipswich Town, it epitomised football’s rougher days.

A football programme for for the Estudiantes de la Plata v Manchester United Intercontinental Cup final on September 25, 1968, hammered down at a top-estimate £10,000 in Shropshire.

The Science, Medicine & Early Technology auction at Flints (25% buyer’s premium) in Thatcham, Berkshire on May 1 was led by a complete seven-volume set of The Mineral Conchology of Great Britain by James Sowerby (1757-1822).