Features

Coinex, the most important event on the British calender for many serious coin collectors, opens at the Biltmore Hotel in Mayfair on September 23-24.

An early 19th century child’s mosaic alphabet, c.1820, is estimated at £100- 200 at Catherine Southon’s auction at Farleigh Court on November 16.

The ‘property of a lady’, this concertina-style wallet book by Beatrix Potter, 'The Story of Miss Moppet', is a first edition published by Frederick Warne & Co, London & New York, 1906.

The 264 English gold coins in the so-called Ellerby Hoard, uncovered by a Yorkshire family while re-laying a floor in an 18th century home, range from the reign of James I to George I.

Thomas Dangerfield (c.1650-85) was a notorious thief, counterfeiter, highwayman and conspirator who is chiefly remembered for his role in falsely accusing British Roman Catholics as part of the ‘Popish Plot’ of 1678.

'Laugh now but one day we’ll be in charge' is a Christie’s auction from September 7-21 celebrating editions created in the 21st century by ‘leading artists and sought after new talents’.

'Catspaws off the Land and Parting with the Tug' are a pair of drypoint etchings by Staithes Group artist Frank Henry Mason (1875-1965), signed in pencil with Fine Art Trade Guild blindstamps, Nos 7 and 8.

Gorringe’s book sale on October 11 in Lewes includes part 1 of the ‘vast selection’ of British topographical works from the library of Dr Brian Austen.

Away from London, some exceptional coin sales coming up in Europe include a number of outstanding British issues.

Assembled over five decades by private collector Martin Burtt, The Glaisdale Agricultural Library on offer at North Yorkshire saleroom Tennants on September 30 includes volumes by the great agricultural writers of the 16th to 19th centuries.

Bellmans is holding a special book and manuscript auction as part of the October sales series, on October 11, with the majority of books coming from one collection.

Newcastle auction house Anderson & Garland is holding The Comics Auction on September 28-29.

The Royal Medal for Astronomy is presented each year by the Royal Society for distinguished contributions to the applied sciences.

The October 13 sale of Early Printed Books at Swann Auction Galleries in New York will feature part two of the library of Ken Rapoport: English literature, tales of chivalry from the Renaissance, and more Shakespeare, Chaucer, Cervantes, Donne, and others.

On October 12 Gloucestershire saleroom Dominic Winter is offering a first English edition of Picasso: Toreros by Jaime Sabartés, London & Monte Carlo: Anton Zwemmer & André Sauret, 1961, estimated at £1000-1500.

Alexander the Great’s conquest of the Persian Achaemenid empire delivered into his hands a vast wealth.

This copy of 'Hansel and Gretel', 1925, with 12 tipped-in colour plates by the Danish artist Kay Nielsen (1886-1957), is one of 600 numbered copies (numbered 16) signed by the artist, in the original publisher’s pictorial cloth.

Books related to Polar explorers are among the highlights of Bonhams’ Travel & Exploration sale on September 20.

The Premier Sale held by St James’s Auctions on September 22 includes this gold half guinea token with a ‘phoenix from the flames’ motif made for Wilson and Younge of Sheffield in 1812.

Although an auction house since 1918, stamps specialist Harmers is a relative newcomer to the London numismatic sales.