More than a century after it left the royal household, five years after Queen Victoria’s death in 1901, a travelling mahogany bed used by the monarch has been acquired by Historic Royal Palaces (HRP). The relic is set to feature at a May exhibition marking the bicentenary of the Queen’s birth. Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge, from Henry Aldridge & Son auctioneers in Devizes, Wiltshire, described the collapsible single bed as a ‘heavy and sturdy’ item. Made...
To commemorate the 100th anniversary since World War I ended, an online antique marketplace has revealed the war’s most valuable memorabilia; a list topped by a Victoria Cross Medal worth £200,000. An antiques website, LoveAntiques.com has partnered with military historian, Mark Smith to compile a list that features the 10 most valuable items that exist from the World War I period. Members of the public could have these valuable collectibles in their homes. Will Thomas,...
Unlike many alternative assets including fine wine and art, antique sales—in particular, Victorian antiques—have a precarious history at auction. The Victorian age, which constitutes the period in which Queen Victoria reigned England from 1837-1901, was a particularly special time in Britain’s rich history. Much of the social, political and economic policies that exist today can be attributed to the Victorians, who implemented major reforms to better improve education, industry, countrywide infrastructure and technology under the...
Sketches by 20th century artist Alberto Giacometti have been found in a Kensington antiques shop. Presumed missing, the drawings were uncovered under piles of papers, paintings and antiques, and have now been officially confirmed as genuine. The Giacometti sketches were discovered by Cambridge auction house Cheffins as they cleared the shop after the passing of the owner, Eila Grahame. There was mention of the two sketches during a previous evaluation of her effects after her...
Brilliant moves and classic blunders have kept chess players fascinated for generations, while the chess sets themselves become more and more collectable, here we cover valuable chess sets. In the age of enlightenment the game of chess was central to café society in Paris. Here, composers such as Rameau and philosophers such as Denis Diderot gathered at the Café de la Régence to discuss the issues of the day, drink coffee and chocolate, and of...
This is a collectors’ category with a very strong following. This field is a broad one and the following is an overview of just a few of the items that excite collectors of arms and armour. Why Ernest Hemingway’s popularity as a writer should have faded so considerably since his heyday may in part be to do with some of the topics he wrote about so well—bullfighting and big game hunting—both sports now being either...
David Lay hunts for high-value treasures in Cornwall’s attics, and finds unexpected items from wonderful Victorian paintings to gruesome artifacts. It is all in a day’s work in his small but busy auction house. This is the place to go when your recent household clean-up yielded more unwanted items than you bargained for. Here you can sell your books, stamps, and indeed your old coin collection. Who knows, maybe you’ll make a fortune. One collector sold...
