This round silver tobacco case was awarded to the winner of a ‘VC race’ by the King’s Own Norfolk Imperial Yeomanry. The event involved a horse and rider in a two-legged race; at the end of the first leg they collected a pillion rider for the return leg.
It was common for regiments to have sports days and the cavalry would focus most of their activities on riding skills.
The case is engraved K.O.N.I.Y 1905 1st PRIZE V.C. RACE WON BY P. G. HARVEY, and is hallmarked for Birmingham 1903, with a maker’s mark for William Aitken.
It is priced at £380 from specialist campaign furniture dealer Christopher Clarke in Stow-on-the-Wold.
Maps, historical manuscripts and documents, medals and militaria, weapons, sports memorabilia and advertising all feature in Whyte’s regular Eclectic Collector sales in Dublin.
The next auction on January 21 includes this promotional bucket-shaped tin for Shankill Rich Cream Toffee. Printed with a girl carrying two pails of cream in an oval cartouche, the 6½in (16cm) high piece is estimated at €80-120.
A collection of film posters dating to the heyday of Polish poster art in the 1950s-’60s will be offered without reserve in AntikBar’s January 14 auction in London.
The group was amassed by Eberhardt Voigt, a keen amateur filmographer and poster collector, and has remained in his family since his death in 1983.
Many of the posters in the collection were sent to Voigt from his friend Leon Buckowieki, a Polish film journalist, and were later exhibited in Munich during the 1970s in a show organised by the German film director Peter Schamoni.
This 2ft 9in x 23in (83 x 58cm) example for the American comedy film Sabrina, starring Audrey Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart, is guided at £150-300. It was made in 1967 by Maciej Zbikowski (b.1935), a Polish poster designer known for his signature use of simple shapes in outlined block colours.
This Arts & Crafts copper box by John Pearson (1885-1910) is guided at £150-250 in Eastbourne Auctions’ January 12-14 sale in East Sussex. Decorated with peacocks, a tree and stud work, the box is marked JP 1903 and measures 7 x 5in (17 x 12cm).
