Features

“Something awful. Never witnessed anything like it before. After a bombardment of a week the Germans mounted their own trenches and the infantry reckon that every German had a machine gun…”

The Crimea medal awarded to one of only two officers taken prisoner by the Russians during the calamitous Charge of the Light Brigade in 1854 sold for £14,000 at London saleroom Dix Noonan Webb (25% buyer’s premium).

Four military maps encompassing Siam (Thailand), Hong Kong, Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia took an unexpected £3700 at the Peter Wilson (22% buyer’s premium) Arms, Militaria, Medals & Firearms auction earlier this year.

The best-seller lists these days will always include a good number of explosive memoirs written by special forces veterans and their heroic stories usually also mean high interest at auction.

Before British female nurses could even help with the wounded they faced a battle to be accepted, as the story behind a medal winner reveals.

This flag offered at East Bristol Auctions (18% buyer’s premium) carries inscriptions for HMS Swiftsure – British Pacific Fleet – 1945, and the Japanese cities Sasebo and Tokyo.

A First World War medal fashioned from a Mexican eight reales coin was an unusual feature of a group sold at Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood (23% buyer’s premium) on February 19.

The 33rd edition of TEFAF Maastricht is the largest yet, building on the formidable foundations already laid but with a suite of updates aimed at maintaining the fair’s impressive reputation

Our selection of highlights from this year’s TEFAF Maastricht

In the latest in a series of updates on the new regulation to stop money laundering, Antiques Trade Gazette provides another round-up of guidance and tips for the art market.

Three individual profiles of first-time exhibitors at TEFAF Maastricht 2020: Runjeet Singh, Stuart Lochhead and Aline Chastel.

The art market is coming to grips with a new regime of stricter regulation which forces auction houses and dealers to know a lot more about their customers than ever before. The new anti-money laundering regulation came into force on January 10 but the market has been awaiting a document of guidance that will help them steer through this complex new regulations. Here art market lawyer Tom Christopherson, one of the BAMF team reviewing the new guidance, runs through the 109-page document to help explain some of the most complicated elements.

A selection of upcoming entertainment lots at auctions ranging from the Fab Four in New York to James Bond in London and Tommy Cooper in Stockport.

The market for both film and music posters is booming but original artwork for such designs can also be a very collectable option for buyers.

Concert posters from the earliest days of bands that later became famous are particulary sought-after at auction. Leading this selection from recent sales is a five-figure example from 1964 which promotes one of the first Rolling Stones tour performances, but many others are available at a lower price range announcing appearances at venues with evocative names such as Bridlington Spa Hall, Basildon Locarno Ballroom and Barnston Women’s Institute.

Not all the posters making four figures at auction fall into the usual Star Wars/James Bond/Hammer/early horror bracket.

A record take of £48m and a one-third increase in the number of lots available to bidders – ATG reviews a healthy 2019 for London numismatic saleroom

This gold solidus struck in Constantinople features the double portrait of Irene of Athens (c.752-803) who from 797-802 became the first empress regnant of the Byzantine empire.

A UK auction record for a copper coin was set on September 24 when a rare Edward VIII 1937 pattern penny sold at Spink for £111,000 (plus 20% buyer’s premium). The coin was made as a trial, ahead of the king’s abdication in December 1936, and was never released for circulation.

Judith Howard (1945-2019), collector, part-time dealer, museum curator, author, TV expert and lecturer, was a self-confessed ‘maximalist’. Every shelf and wall space in her Wiltshire end-of-terrace was there to be filled. Dusting was a chore reserved for just one day a year.