This picture above is from a rare first edition in book form of Carlo Collodi’s (1826-90) famous children’s classic The Adventures of Pinocchio, which was originally published in instalments from July 1881.
The tale appeared in the weekly magazine Il Giornale per i Bambini up to chapter 15, with the remaining part published for the first time by Felice Poggi in 1883.
This book, which has a frontispiece and 61 illustrations by the Italian cartoonist Enrico Mazzanti (1850-1910), is estimated at £8000-12,000 at Chiswick Auctions in west London on May 29.
chiswickauctions.co.uk or see this item on thesaleroom.com
A group of six late 19th century mice menu holders by George Tinworth for Doulton Lambeth will be offered at North Yorkshire saleroom Hutchinson Scott on May 23-24.
The half-a-dozen pieces, four dated 1886, are offered in a single lot estimated at £8000-12,000.
hutchinsonscott.co.uk or see this item on thesaleroom.com
The Shortt Synchronome free pendulum clock – developed by London & South Western Railway engineer William Hamilton Shortt in collaboration with horologist Frank Hope Jones – was at one time the most accurate pendulum clock produced commercially.
These complex precision electromechanical pendulum clocks became the highest standard for timekeeping in the 1920s-40s, after which mechanical clocks were superseded by quartz time standards.
The Shortt was the first clock to be a more accurate timekeeper than the earth itself; it was used in 1926 to detect tiny seasonal changes in the earth’s rotation rate.
This example above is estimated at £10,000-20,000 in a dedicated clocks sale at Corsham, Wiltshire, auction house Gardiner Houlgate on May 23-24.
gardinerhoulgate.co.uk or see this item on thesaleroom.com
