Features

The unexpected but very welcome increase in demand that the market experienced amid Covid lockdowns continued in 2022 as restrictions eased – and auction houses are optimistic about another strong performance this year

A sale of Banknotes at Noonans included this One Rupee note issued by the Banco Nacional Ultramarino in Goa in 1917. The rare first issue note took £13,000 (plus 24% buyer’s premium).

With 39,000 of these campaign honours given out, which ones can generate extra demand and achieve higher prices?

Medals awarded to a gallant soldier who was gassed in the First World War were sold at auction just a few minutes’ walk from the house where he was born.

The personal stories behind medals are becoming increasingly relevant to collectors.

In its earliest days flying was frequently lethal, in and out of combat.

By the end of the First World War it has been estimated that over eight million horses had died.

Vice Admiral Davidge Gould was the last surviving member of Nelson’s Band of Brothers, dying in 1847

Specialist buyers turn out in force to bid for rusty ‘warts and all’ weapons amassed by dealer-collector

Works by Mr Brainwash (b.1966) are becoming an increasingly common sight at auction.

A selection of militaria with solid Sussex interest appeared at Lewes saleroom Wallis & Wallis (22% buyer’s premium).

A group of eight Andy Warhol (1928-87) prints came to auction at Van Ham (32% buyer’s premium including VAT) in Cologne at the end of last year, including a few of his most famous subjects from documented editions of the 1960-80s.

A pair of militaria highlights related to Irish regiments that came up in recent auctions.

Allen Jones (b.1937) is regarded as one of the pioneers of early British pop art.

While London gun-makers featured heavily – and lucratively – at Gavin Gardiner’s (25% buyer’s premium) auction of Modern & Vintage Sporting Guns on December 14, provincial makers also got a look in.

Key artists in the American pop art movement such as Roy Lichtenstein (1923-97) and Andy Warhol (1929- 87) make big ticket prices.

A rare Second World War helmet worn by members of a little-known unit of the UK home front comes for sale at Sworders on February 7.

Among the graphic works on offer in Thomaston Place’s Winter Enchantment sale in Maine on February 24-26 are these two prints by Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol.

In August and September 2021 London gallery Whitford Fine Art held an exhibition titled Sand Casts devoted to a British pop artist prominent in the Swinging Sixties who had renewed his successful career in the Nineties.

Birmingham-born Roy Elvis (1944- 2022) inherited his family interest in antiques and started collecting furniture and decorative arts from an early age.