Features

Space for an oddity in your vinyl collection? David Bowie fans obviously feel that way.

As the sale title suggested, plenty of Bowie material appeared in Omega’s (28% buyer’s premium inc VAT) David Bowie & Glam Rock Vinyl Records & Memorabilia auction earlier this year.

Three previously unheard tracks by the band that went on to become Radiohead surfaced thanks to a demo cassette that sold at Merseyside auction house Omega (28% buyer’s premium inc VAT).

They sang about a Champagne Supernova but ‘24 large cans of quality lager’ were more to their taste when Oasis stipulated their needs for band and crew at an early gig.

A note penned in December 1963 by Mary Elizabeth Smith from The Mendips, Menlove Avenue, Liverpool, to a Miss V Stoker of 54 Pirton Road, Hitchin, sold for £1300 to a UK online bidder at Wolverhampton saleroom Cuttlestones (17.5% buyer’s premium) on March 19.

While the Grand Hotel, Birmingham, may not have the same ring as Hotel California, in the Sixties it was the place to check in. And even leave afterwards.

American film producer Elliott Kastner (1930- 2010) was responsible for many well-known movies including The Long Goodbye (1973), The Missouri Breaks (1976) and Angel Heart (1987).

The late Michael Armstrong was such a film fanatic that when the local cinema closed in his home town in 1993 he opened his own mini replica in his garage, complete with recycled fixtures and fittings.

Thirteen lots in the exotically named Dr Atomicas Journey into Cool auction at Bishop & Miller in Stowmarket on May 7 have been consigned from an individual who worked for 30 years in the film industry with some of the biggest names.

Famous for the sort of graffiti that morphs into street art and critical acclaim, Banksy is now bringing in big money in the form of screenprints

While Banksy prints abound at auction, the number of original works that emerge is understandably much less.

The live webcast auction of Urban and Contemporary art held by Tate Ward (25% buyer’s premium) on March 24 proved well timed, coming just a day after Christie’s sold Banksy’s 'Game Changer' for £14.4m.

Bonhams (27.5/25/20/14.5% buyer’s premium) has been offering works by Banksy for some time now in a number of different sale types including Contemporary art auctions and specialist print offerings.

Among the Banksy works sold outside London recently was a screenprint of Trolleys that made £40,000 at Tennants’ (20% buyer’s premium) of Leyburn in North Yorkshire.

This image of children swinging along a watch tower was part of Banksy’s ‘Walled Off’ project that relates to the West Bank barrier between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

A number of Banksy’s earlier prints from the early 2000s feature the subject of a rat.

A long search for an 1914-15 Star had a happy ending after the Dix Noonan Webb (24% buyer’s premium) auction in London on February 17.

Medal group awarded to First World War nurse is coming up at Bishop & Miller auction.

Collector’s daughter describes what it was like to grow up amid huge musical machines

The postponed January auction at Gloucestershire saleroom Chorley’s will take place on March 23-24.