Tennis player dressed to impress
This c.1880 etching depicts 19th century court tennis player Charles ‘Biboche’ Delahaye (1825-1906) and is priced at £950 from Grosvenor Prints in Covent Garden, London.
Delahaye was the son of a tennis court keeper from Amiens and a pupil of J Edmond Barre, considered the greatest court tennis player of the 19th century.
Among other career highlights Delahaye beat leading British player Peter Tompkins at Hampton Court in 1848 and is said to have been fond of bizarre handicaps - once playing in the full-dress uniform of the National Guard complete with rucksack and musket.
Empire building in collage form
A Canadian appliqué collage depicting the countries and provinces of the British Empire. Dated to c.1917-20, it is available for £18,500 from Robert Young Antiques.
This large naïve Canadian appliqué collage comprising 40 individual panels depicts the countries and provinces of the British Empire.
Dated to c.1917-20, the hand-stitched and embroidered fabric measures 6ft 8in x 5ft 9in (2.01 x 1.73m) with the 13 provinces of Canada represented alongside countries such as England, New Zealand, India and South Africa.
The piece is available to buy for £18,500 from London folk art and vernacular furniture specialist Robert Young Antiques.
Willows with inscription
A copy of 'The Wind In The Willows' by Kenneth Grahame, inscribed to Ruth Ward, the daughter of the author's family friends. It is priced at £75,000 by Jonkers Rare Books.
A range of inscribed books, association copies and literary manuscripts make up the latest publication and accompanying exhibition at Henley on Thames bookshop Jonkers Rare Books.
Among the highlights is this copy of The Wind In The Willows by Kenneth Grahame, which is one of only six known presentation copies of the first edition, and is priced accordingly at £75,000.
The book is inscribed to Ruth Ward, the daughter of Sidney and Katherine Ward who were family friends of the Grahames.
Catalogue of Princess Di charity auction
A luxury catalogue produced in 1997 for a charity auction at Christie’s of 80 dresses from the collection of Princess Diana. It is priced at £9750 by Peter Harrington.
This luxury catalogue was produced in 1997 for a charity auction at Christie’s of 80 dresses from the collection of Princess Diana.
The auction, which was held in New York on June 25 just two months before Diana’s death, raised over $3.6m for the AIDS Crisis Trust and The Royal Marsden Hospital Cancer Fund. The catalogues were signed by Diana and produced in a limited edition of 250 with full purple leather boards, a sewn-in silk bookmark and illustrated with colour photographs by Terence Donovan, Patrick Demarchelier and Lord Snowdon among others.
This copy is offered for sale at £9750 from rare book specialist Peter Harrington.
“The catalogue was issued by Christie’s as an enticement to wealthy prospective bidders,” said Peter Harrington owner Pom Harrington.
“Most copies have remained with their original owners as a memento of both Diana and the record-breaking charity auction and, consequently, don’t come up for sale very often. This particular copy was owned by an individual who bought several of Diana’s dresses at the 1997 sale.”
Peter Harrington will donate 20% of the list price of all orders from the catalogue to UK eating disorder charity Beat.
