World's most expensive book to go under the hammer

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(Reuters Life!) - A rare book by America's most famous bird artist, John James Audubon, billed as the most expensive in the world, is going under the hammer in December alongside a first edition of Shakespeare's plays.
"Birds of America," which is estimated to sell for between 4 million and 6 million pounds ($6.2-$9.2 million), was said by auctioneer Sotheby's to have inspired generations of ornithologists.
When a copy of the book with hand-colored, life-size prints of birds was last sold in 2000, by rival firm Christie's, it set a world record price for a printed book, fetching $8.8 million.
Only 119 copies of "Birds of America" are known to exist. The book contains 1,000 illustrations of about 500 breeds of birds and took Audubon 12 years to complete. Audubon, who died in 1851, was an influential natural historian. He was quoted three times in Charles Darwin's "The Origin of Species."
Sotheby's said the auction, on December 7 in London, will also include a book widely regarded as the most important in all English literature -- the first collected edition of Shakespeare's plays, "First Folio," dated from 1623.
The "First Folio," with 36 plays including "Macbeth," "The Tempest," and "Twelfth Night," is expected to sell for between 1.0 and 1.5 million pounds ($1.5-$2.3 million).
"The sale offers the twin peaks of book collecting - the most expensive book in the world, Audubon's "Birds of America," and the most important book in all of English Literature, Shakespeare's "First Folio,"" Sotheby's spokesman David Goldthorpe said in a statement.
Sotheby's said the two books were among a lot of 50 books, manuscripts and drawings from the collection of Lord Hesketh who died in 1955.
It also includes a series of letters by Queen Elizabeth I, the Earl of Leicester and the spy Francis Walsingham relating to the imprisonment of Mary Queen of Scots.
The sale also boasts the largest group of rose drawings by Pierre-Joseph Redoute, to come on the market since a sale by his patron and pupil the Duchesse de Berry in 1837.
(Writing by Belinda Goldsmith, Editing by Dean Goodman)

Famous duckhouse makes £1,700 in auction.

From today's Independent

An MP who was forced to stand down after claiming £1,645 on expenses for a floating duck house has now sold it for charity, it was confirmed today.


Former Conservative MP for Gosport Sir Peter Viggers, 72, was criticised for his expenses claims which totalled £30,000 for gardening costs.

These included the 5ft duck house which acts as a floating island to protect ducks from being attacked by foxes.

Now Sir Peter, who quit his seat at the General Election on the orders of David Cameron, has sold the Stockholm duck house at auction.

It sold to a business centre in Wolverhampton for £1,700 and Sir Peter donated the proceeds to Macmillan Cancer Support.

A spokesman for the charity said: "Macmillan Cancer Support relies entirely on public donations to provide practical, emotional and financial support to the two million people currently living with cancer.

"We are really delighted that some good has come out of the whole expenses scandal and are grateful for the donation from Sir Peter.

"This money is enough for us to provide a Macmillan nurse for two weeks."

Lennons Loo makes $15,500 at auction

The porcelain toilet John Lennon used between 1969 and 1972 has been sold to a collector at a Liverpool auction for $15,500.

The porcelain lavatory was from the ex-Beatle’s Tittenhurst home in Berkshire, England.

BBC News reports that auction organizer Stephen Bailey said: “It is unbelievable.

We had bids coming in from all over the place but it went to a private overseas buyer.”

The sale took place in The Paul McCartney Auditorium at The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts.

As Gibson.com reported when the auction was announced, the toilet had been given to a builder, John Hancock, and kept in his shed for almost 40 years until his recent death.

Also sold at the auction at The Paul McCartney Auditorium at The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts was a mono version of Lennon and Yoko Ono’s Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins, sold for $4,500, and a harmonica that belonged to Julian Lennon. John gave it to the builder because his son was driving him crazy playing the instrument.

John Lennon's Toilet for auction.

John Lennon's toilet is set to go under the hammer this week after it was discovered in his former builder’s shed after forty years.

The famous throne will be one of two hundred and ninety five items of Beatles memorabilia to be auctioned on the day at the Liverpool Institute for the Performing Arts.

The exceptional items at the action include the lavatory and one of Lennon’s rarest albums still in circulation, Two Virgins.

The album was a mono-sound recording which he produced with Yoko Ono in November 1968 and is expected to fetch at least £2,500.

When the avant garde LP was released it was infamous for being sold in brown paper bags because the sleeve controversially featured a naked picture of John and Yoko.

Bids are also being invited for Lennon's toilet which was taken from Tittenhurst Park, his Berkshire home between 1969 and 1972.

Lennon told builder John Hancock he could have the porcelain lavatory after installing a new one. John remarked to him he should "use it as a plant pot".

It was stored in a shed at Hancock's home for some 40 years until he died recently and was salvaged by a relative. The toilet is estimated to fetch £750 to £1,000.

Auctioneer Stephen Bailey said: "The toilet might be worth something, and it might not, but it is certainly one of the more unusual items we've sold."

Bailey, who is also manager of The Beatles Shop in Liverpool, added: "I have only ever come across two other mono copies of Two Virgins before so that will be the one to watch. Even at the end of the sixties, during such a bohemian period, the picture of a naked couple on the album cover still caused a great deal of scandal."

"The stereo version sold relatively few copies at a time when any one of the Beatles could easily have shifted hundreds of thousands of records."

The auction will take place next Saturday at the Liverpool Institute for the Performing Arts.

Hustle con

Hustle con

A couple of nights ago I watched The Real Hustle: Celebrity Scammers on BBC. It’s on again tonight on BBC 3 at 7pm.

In it a punter is taken for £1,900 in a sham auction con. The ‘mark’ overhears someone in a bar receiving a phone call to say that a certain picture in a nearby junk shop is worth £2000 and is on sale for £50. While that person nips to the toilet, the marks goes to the shop and buys the picture. They are met outside by the person who was on the phone who tells them that the picture is worth £2k and that while he would not be making any money (Oh Yeah!) he has a friend with an auctionrooms around the corner who could slip it in to the auction which was about to start (as if!!). There are about 20 customers at the auction. The first conman tells the marks that they might have to bid the picture up a bit. They are bidding against a phone bidder who they already are told will go to £3k. The mark is at £1900 when the phone ‘breaks down’ and the picture is knocked down to the mark. The con men then organise a deal with the phone bidder and pay the mark with a check, but he has first of all to pay the £1900 for the picture, which he does in cash. He still thinks that he has made a big profit, except, of course that the cheque is a dud.

My complaint is that the program itself is a con. Think about it:

3 principal con artists.
About 20 bit players.
Hire of an ‘auctionrooms’
Plus the signs, props etc

ALL FOR A TAKE OF £1,900!!!
…………………………………………

On another matter: I watched the One Show, also on BBC during the week. On it the presenter was speaking about the 1933 1d. She stated that the coin was worth about £65,000 – probably correct. However, she was handling the coin, not very professionally, with her bare hands. If I had a £65k coin I would not let someone like that handle it without gloves. My guess is that the coin was a replica.

Churchill's false teeth make £15,200 at auction

A pair of false teeth worn by Winston Churchill have sold at auction for £15,200 -- on the same day that plans were announced to put the British wartime leader's archive papers online for the first time.

Churchill, famous for his rousing speeches during World War II, had several sets of the partial upper dentures specially constructed to hide his natural lisp and accentuate his signature slurred diction.

According to documents held by the Royal College of Surgeons, the former prime minister "lived in fear of losing his false teeth" and would always have a spare set to hand, entrusted to his private secretary, Andrew Bullock of Keys auction house in Aylsham, eastern England, told CNN.

The set which sold for £15,200 ($23,700) on Thursday -- more than three times its expected price -- was put up for sale by Nigel Cudlipp, the son of the dental technician who made them, Derek Cudlipp.

"According to Nigel Cudlipp, his father said he could always tell how the war was going from the distance Winston hurled the teeth," said Bullock. "They were prone to breaking, especially when Churchill got a bit angry."

Bullock said Churchill suffered from poor teeth and gums from childhood and had complicated dentistry requirements. He later nominated his dentist for a knighthood.

Dinosaur for auction.

Sotheby’s is to offer the Allosaurus remains in a Paris sale on October 5. The skeleton is 33 feet (10 metres) in length, and it is estimated it will fetch about €800,000

Catholic church: confessional withdrawn from auction.

The Catholic Church in Vienna has ruled that a former confessional cannot be used as a sauna.

Bidding on a confessional described on eBay as ideal for conversion into a one-person sauna, a small bar or a children's playhouse was ended when the archdiocese stepped in.

Archdiocese spokesman Erich Leitenberger told the daily Salzburger Nachrichten on Tuesday that auctioning "objects that were used for dispensing the sacraments is not acceptable."

Confessionals "should not be converted into saunas or bars," he said.

The confessional was offered for auction in Austria by a Vienna church undergoing renovations.

Curiously, the highest reported amount offered by one of the 40 bidders before the item was yanked from the internet Monday was 666.66 euros.

The number 666 is commonly associated with the Antichrist – or the devil.

Wold Cup Final football makes £48,200 at auction.

The football used in the final of the FIFA World Cup 2010 in South Africa was sold for £48,200 in an online auction.

The ball made by sports kit maker Adidas was one of those used in the final between Spain and the Netherlands played in Johannesburg.

According to the auctioneer eBay, the controversy around the ball - with complaints about its movement through the air - has fuelled interest, The Telegraph reported Saturday.

"Unique pieces of sporting memorabilia have always been extremely popular on eBay," said Ruth Szyszkowski of the website.

"The interest in this particular piece seems not only heightened by the controversy surrounding it, but also the proceeds benefiting such a great cause."

Adidas said the World Cup ball's "radical grip 'n' groove" technology, tested by scientists at Loughborough University, allowed "exceptionally stable flight and perfect grip under all conditions".

But the ball, named "Jabulani" from the Zulu word for "to celebrate", was criticised by some players.

A total of 133 bids were placed from 55 international bidders, a spokesman said.

A group of Spanish fans made the highest bid.

Trigger makes $266,500 at auction

Trigger has a new home - as do numerous items once owned by Western stars Roy Rogers and Dale Evans.

They were put up for auction yesterday at Christie's in New York, with an auctioneer calling it the "most colorful, emotional and sentimental" sale she's experienced in her 20 years with the firm.

The hall was packed, with many of the bidders wearing Western attire and cowboy boots. There were even some tears.

The items were from the now-closed Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Museum in Branson, Mo. They fetched more than expected, including Rogers' stuffed horse Trigger, which went for $266,500. It was bought by a cable company in Omaha, Neb.

Rogers' 1964 Bonneville convertible, encrusted with silver dollars, sold for almost as much: $254,500.

Ashes of Coronation Street cat for auction.

The ashes of a cat which featured in the titles of Coronation Street are to be sold at auction.
Frisky starred in the soap's opening sequence for 10 years and was seen at the start of more than 1,000 episodes, crouching on the roof of Jack Duckworth's pigeon loft.
His owner, John Rimington, who is putting his pet's remains up for auction next week in South Cerney, Gloucestershire, said: "Frisky was not only a much-loved family pet, but also captured the heart of the nation and made thousands of pounds for charities. We were very proud to be his owners and we are keen to keep his memory alive."
The tabby was hired in 1990 after beating 5,000 other potential cats to the role.
He raised money for charity through numerous personal appearances until his death in 2000 at the age of 14.
His ashes, sealed in a wooden casket with a brass plaque, are expected to fetch up to £150.
The lot also includes a cremation certificate and postcards of Frisky with other stars of Weatherfield, and is part of a wider auction of antiques and collectibles.
Chris Albury, of Dominic Winter Auctioneers, said: "Not only was Frisky one of the most recognised cats in the country for over a decade, but he also became synonymous with one of the nation's favourite soaps.
"At this stage we're not expecting an auction room dogfight but this lot will add some light relief into the day's proceedings."
The auction will take place on Thursday, July 22.

Winston Churchill's False Teeth to Be Auctioned

The false teeth of legendary BritishWinston Churchill will go up for auction, and were expected to fetch £5,000, dental news website Dentistry.co.uk reported Friday.

The set of teeth will be sold on July 29 at Keys auction rooms in Norfolk, by the son of Derek Cudlipp, the technician who made them.

Throughout his life, the oratory craftsman feared that problems with his teeth would affect his public speaking, and Churchill was believed to be so anxious about losing his beloved dentures that he always kept a spare set to hand, the website reported.

Last month the auction house sold a butter dish Churchill used as an ashtray, and a stubbed-out cigar of his for £4,500.

ROY ROGERS’ ‘TRIGGER’ TO BE AUCTIONED OFF.

Trigger, the palomino that carried cowboy movie star Roy Rogers, will be on the auction block later this month.

Trigger, who was stuffed after his death in 1965, will be auctioned off with other Roy Rogers memorabilia at Christie's in New York. The Christie's website says the auction is scheduled for July 14-15, and that Trigger is expected to bring in about $100,000 to $200,000.

The Springfield News-Leader reports that the Rogers family decided last year to close the Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Museum that had been in Branson for about six years.

Lock of Napoleon's hair sold at New Zealand auction

A lock of Napoleon Bonaparte's hair snipped from his head the day after he died in 1821 was sold for 19,000 New Zealand dollars (13,300 US dollars) at an auction in Auckland on Tuesday.
It was bought in a telephoned bid by a private collector in London, who did not want to be identified, auctioneer Hamish Coney said.
A lithograph and watercolour image of Napoleon on his deathbed, fetched 21,000 New Zealand dollars, the biggest price of more than 40 items from a private collection.
The Napoleon memorabilia originally belonged to Denzil Ibbetson, commissary officer on the island of St Helena where the former emperor was exiled and died. Ibbetson's diary was sold for 9,500 New Zealand dollars.
The collection was brought to New Zealand in 1864 by Ibbetson's son Frederick and had never been seen in public before.
Coney said the auction, which drew telephoned bids from London, Paris, Hong Kong, Washington and Lithuania, fetched a total of 140,000 New Zealand dollars.

Attack on auctioneer lands man 30 years in prison

See also http://auctions-auctioneering.blogspot.com/2009/07/auctioneering-can-be-tough-business.html
A man high on methamphetaine when he slashed the throat of a Woodburn auctioneer nearly one year ago was sentenced to 30 years in prison
Jeremiah Thomasson’s violent history landed him the sentence, according to Marion County Circuit Court Presiding Judge Jamese Rhoades’ ruling.
Thomasson, 24, has several prior assault convictions and had been punished for breaking rules more than 25 times while awaiting trial at Marion County jail. Once, he punched an inmate for not giving him a cookie at lunch, Marion County prosecutor Jodie Bureta said.

Charles “Chuck” Boyce was on an auction block at Woodburn Auction Yard in June 2009 when a man from the crowd walked up, grabbed him and slit his neck with a box knife.

“Three-hundred sixty three days ago, Mr. Thomasson changed my life by trying to take my life,” Boyce said during the sentencing hearing.

“He’s left deeper scars in me than the one I have to see every day when I shave.”
Boyce said since the attack he suffers post-traumatic stress disorder that cost him his marriage. He asked that Thomasson be sentenced to a long time in prison to prevent other victims.

“If he can do this to me, why can’t he do it fatally to someone else,” Boyce said.
Rhoades said that Thomasson’s violent history made him dangerous to the community.

“Apparently close to 200 people sat and saw you go up behind Mr. Boyce and slit his throat,” the judge told Thomasson.

There was no explanation for the behavior, Rhoades said, calling Thomasson “some sort of explosive with little or no fuse.

“You’re polite every time you come into court,” she said. “That’s kind of the scary thing about this.”

Marilyn Monroe Breast X-Rays Sell For $45k At Auction

An auction held at the Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino in Las Vegas titled Hollywood Legends, sold three chest x-rays of Marilyn Monroe for an unbelievable $45,000.00.

The auction was held by West Hollywood auction company Julien’s, had other Monroe memorabilia as well as items from Audrey Hepburn and Kate Winslett.

Other notable items that sold at the auction was the Superman IV costume worn by Christopher Reeve.

The Monroe x-rays were from a 1954 visit to the hospital and were only expected to get about $1,000.00 for each one.

Auctioneers were surprised when the bidding kept going until it reached the $45,000.00 mark. Other items of Monroe that were sold at the auction included a bottle of Chanel No 5, A crew neck sweater and the chair from her last photo shoot.

Monroe died in 1962 but continues to be one of the largest Hollywood icons ever. Original Monroe memorabilia always brings very high dollar amounts at the auction block. Buyers from around the world flock to auctions holding items of the blonde bombshell.

Rowan Atkinson's Blackadder codpiece auctioned

A codpiece worn by Rowan Atkinson in the 1986 TV series Blackadder II has sold for £850 at an auction.
The item, from the series which was set in medieval times, was sold by Cameo Auctioneers in Midgham in Berkshire.
Jon King, from the auctioneers, said: "This is possibly the most iconic costume item in the series."
The codpiece was a covering at the front of the crotch and formed an essential part of the well-dressed Elizabethan man's wardrobe.
The garment accentuated the genital area and was held closed by string ties or buttons.
The khaki ski suit used by Pierce Brosnan as James Bond in The World is Not Enough in 1999 sold for £1,700 at the TV and Film Costumes auction.
A medieval-style tunic with studs worn by Sean Connery as Robin Hood in the film Robin and Marian in 1976 was only expected to sell for up to £200 but fetched £2,000.
Another costume which exceeded its estimate was a burgundy one worn by the Thuggee in the 1984 film Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
It was expected to sell for between £400 and £600 but it went for £1900.

From the BBC website.

Buying a town full of memories

By Patty Fisher
pfisher@mercurynews.com

Fran Moyer planned merely to pick up a few mementos at an auction in Texas last weekend.
Instead, she bought herself a town.
That's right, an entire town.
"I still can't believe it," she says, laughing and shaking her head. "I really never dreamed I would get it."
Just as soon as the giddiness wears off, she'll figure out exactly what to do with The Grove, an antique Old West-style town 30 miles southwest of Waco with a general store, blacksmith shop, saloon, bank and post office.
"I'm very curious to see how this is going to play out," she says.
Yes, who wouldn't be?
Moyer, who lives in San Jose and sings beautiful alto solos in my church choir, was born and raised in Texas. Her grandfather, WJ Dube, owned the general store in The Grove from 1917 until 1946. Both her parents grew up there. When she was a little girl, Moyer used to spend summers at her grandparents' home, plucking chickens, fishing in the stream and sitting on the front porch after supper, watching the night fall over the fragrant farmland.
"I can't describe how important that little piece of the world is to me," she says. "When you grow up like that you become very close to the land and it's just in your genes."
A town that faded away
Founded in 1859, The Grove was a thriving farming community until the 1930s, when the residents, in an effort to save it, unwittingly killed it
The state wanted to build Highway 36 through the center of town, but the locals balked because it meant paving over the municipal well, their literal lifeblood. So the state rerouted the highway, and The Grove, bypassed by the outside world, became a ghost town.
In 1972, an antique collector named Moody Anderson bought the old buildings, filled them with Texas artifacts and opened the Country Life Museum. The Grove attracted tourists by day, country musicians by night and filmmakers who used pieces of Anderson's collection as props for westerns like "Lonesome Dove." It became known as the liveliest ghost town in Texas.
Two years ago, at 80, Anderson figured it was time to sell his precious museum. He got no bidders on eBay, so he decided to hold an auction.
When Moyer heard about the auction, she couldn't resist going.
"I went to go to say goodbye to The Grove," she said.
On the first day of the auction, she looked at the thousands of tagged items: mounted buffalo heads, blacksmith tools, roll-top desks, oil lamps. She bought a few old photos, but saying goodbye turned out to be harder than she'd expected.
That night, she called her husband, Jim, a successful Silicon Valley executive, and floated the idea of bidding on the half-acre strip of buildings.
"I asked if he would mind if I spent a couple hundred thousand to buy my grandfather's store," she said.
What could he say? Fran's not an extravagant person. She drove her old Volvo station wagon for nearly 30 years. The Moyers don't live in a statement home. But this was a statement she just had to make, about the importance of roots and family.
A surprising outcome
The next day, when the bidding opened at $100,000, she raised her paddle, thinking that she was merely making a symbolic bid.
Another person quickly bid $150,000.
Moyer raised it to $200,000, hoping to bid up the price for Anderson, and waited for the other bidder to respond.
He didn't.
"Do I hear 250? Do I hear 225?" the auctioneer pleaded.
Silence.
I suspect the fix was in. Everyone knew Anderson and the locals wanted the place to stay in the family. Moyer may have thought she was just a symbolic bidder, but perhaps the other bidder was.
When the gavel fell, she jumped up and down and screamed "like an idiot."
"I never dreamed I would get it," she said. "I have bought my most precious childhood memories."
So, now that she has her ghost town, what will she do with it? Her brother and other relatives still live outside of town, and she hopes they will look after the place for her.
"We want to fix it up, and since they sold all the furniture in the saloon, I guess we're going to have to buy some," she said. "The locals are all asking where they are going to play dominoes now."

Tom Jones' dole records fail to sell at auction

From BBC Wales:

"He does not want shift work but I believe the reason for his not liking shifts is because he is a member of a vocal group which is supposedly an amateur affair." So said a dole officer of Sir Tom Jones as he started his life as a singer. But this unemployment record card and five more failed to meet their reserve price at a recent auction.

The six cards detailed Tom Jones' trips to the dole office between 1961 and 1964, when he was still known as Thomas Woodward. The officials charged with recording his attempts to enter the employment market appear unimpressed with his efforts.

"From the number of adverts one sees in the local press... it seems that this group has a good thing going... from the way he is able to dress, it would seem that Mr Woodward's little hobby is highly lucrative and this would also account for his non enthusiasm in securing employment."

The cards provide an illuminating insight to the world of a musician battling with authorities that at the time would probably not have appreciated the potential in the then-fledgling sphere popular music industry.

Unfortunately for the owner of the cards, which were rescued from a Pontypridd skip when employment records were computerised, they didn't prove popular in the auction room.

Auctioneer Richard Westwood Brookes of Mullock's auction house in Shropshire, reported some bidding but the cards did not meet the reserve price.

He said at the time of the find: "They are a wonderful look at the beginning of a glittering career when Tom Jones was trying to make a living from his singing.
"The notes mention his TB and it's amazing to think that such a voice came from a man who had suffered from the disease."

*Marilyn Monroe's X-rays for auction.

A Las Vegas auctioneer said a 1954 X-ray image of Marilyn Monroe's chest is expected to fetch bids of up to $1,200 in June.

Julien's Auctions at the Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino Las Vegas said the X-ray image of Monroe's chest and lungs, taken at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Los Angeles, is expected to sell for between $800 and $1,200 during the June 26-27 auction, the New York Daily News reported Tuesday.

"(The X-ray) was taken around the time she was believed to be pregnant, rumor has it that she had a miscarriage," said Darren Julien, president and chief executive of the auction house.

Julien said the auction will also include four X-rays of Monroe's abdomen, a daybed the actress is believed to have used while visiting her therapist, a 1953 rate card detailing the 27-year-old Monroe's $1,250 weekly earnings and a script from her 1962 film "Something's Got to Give."

Jordan's breast Implants for Ebay auction?

Katie Price apparently plans to auction her old breast implants on eBay.

The former glamour model told The Guardian that she has two sets "at home" that she hopes to sell off.

Price, who stood for Parliament in 2001 promising free breast implants, said that she would like to make "a million pound" (sic) from the sale.

The 31-year-old added that she might have to rethink her plan, however, following her marriage to crossdresser Alex Reid. "They might come in handy after all!" she said.

Christie’s Green Auction

Back in February Christie’s International announced the 2010 Inaugural Green Auction titled, “A Bid to Save the Earth” to honor the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. With the big event a little under two weeks away, Christie’s has launched a companion online silent auction hosted by CharityBuzz and featuring incredible experiences for the highest bidders.

Some highlights of the star-studded auction include spending the day on set with Hugh Jackman, enjoying a tennis lesson with John McEnroe, and joining Candice Bergen for a driving tour of Central Park. Looking to dine with Eli Manning, Vera Wang, Sigourney Weaver, or David Duchovny? Just log onto Charity Buzz and place your top bid.

The online Green Auction also includes major artwork, luxury vacations, and other once-in-a-lifetime adventures. Online bidding runs through May 6. Funds raised through the auctions will benefit Oceana, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Central Park Conservancy, and Conservation International.

Additional details about Christie’s Green Auction: A Bid to Save the Earth can be found at abidtosavetheearth.org.

Queen Victoria's stockings fetch £690 at auction

A pair of Queen Victoria's silk stockings have been sold for £690 at auction in Edinburgh.

The black and white hand-stitched garments with crests are believed to date from 1874

They were thought to have a been favourite style of the monarch and were valued at around £400.

A spokesman for auctioneers Lyon and Turnbull said the stockings had been bought by a dealer on behalf of a third party.

The stockings went under the hammer for £690 as part of a fine antiques sale.
It was not known how they ended up in the hands of the previous owner's family.
However, much of the monarch's wardrobe was distributed to members of the Royal household on her death in 1901.

Lee Young, head of antiques at Lyon and Turnbull, said examples of the Queen's undergarments had long been considered the "crowning glory" for Victoriana collectors around the world.

Another item of note in the sale was Napoleon's favourite pipe, which sold for £4,000

1938 Superman comic sells for record $1.5 million

Superman became the $1.5 million man Monday when a rare copy of the first comic to feature the superhero smashed all previous auction records for a comic book.
The 1938 copy of Action Comics, in which Superman debuted, easily beat the $1.075 million record set at auction in February for a comic book with Batman's first outing, online auctioneers ComicConnect.com said.

The same issue of Superman's Action Comics debut sold for $1 million dollars in February, but that was not in as good condition as the copy sold overnight.

Back in 1938 the Superman comic, boasting a cover picture of the red-caped hero lifting a green car, cost just 10 cents.

"This new record will be hard to break," said ComicConnect.com co-owner Vincent Zurzolo, "because this particular Action Comics Number One is literally the single most valuable comic book on the planet."

Incredibly, the comic book's existence was unknown for 50 years as it lay unnoticed tucked inside an old movie magazine, ComicConnect.com said.

Giant 200-year-old dildos sold for £3,600

A PAIR of 200-year-old sex toys shaped as gigantic wooden phalluses have been sold at a UK auction for £3,600.

The Sun reports staff at Brentwood Antiques Auction in Essex described the sex toys as "extraordinary and exceptionally rare" and said they were probably French and dated back to the late 1700s.

"You might laugh but it's a good opportunity for investment," aptly named auctioneer Wendy Wood said.

"You won't see another one in a long time."

Auctioneers listed the lot on the website under "Erotica".

A catalogue description read: "An extraordinary and exceptionally rare 'Travel Godermiche' being a pair of wooden phallus contained within a fitted kid leather covered Treen case with strap fleurs-de-lys decoration, one phallus 10 inches and with testicles and the other 11 inches and without testicles."

"The case, although having a relined interior appears to have age commensurate with those of the phallus," the listing adds.

For sale, a hero's VC medal and the cannonball that struck him

By Neil Sears


It is the first Victoria Cross to be earned by a British Army soldier - and it comes with a macabre accessory.
The medal awarded to Major John Simpson Knox is being auctioned with the cannonball that took his left arm during the Crimean War.
A fellow soldier picked up the missile that hit Major Knox and later gave it to him.
The VC and cannonball are expected to fetch up to £120,000 at auction in London next month.
Major Knox was an exceptionally tall boy who ran away from his home in Glasgow and managed to join the Scots Fusilier Guards when he was 14, under the legal age for enlisting.
Despite his youth he was swiftly promoted and was an acting sergeant major by the start of the Crimean War in 1854.
Britain and France had joined forces to take on Russia in the Crimean peninsula in the Black Sea - and Knox was among the soldiers to sail there.
It was on September 20, 1854 that Knox performed his first of two acts of valour that secured him the VC.
It is the earliest date upon which any British Army soldier earned a VC, predated only by three Royal Navy sailors.
He was taking part in the Battle of the River Alma, and according to the citation for his medal, he 'acted with conspicuous courage in reforming the ranks of the Guards at a decisive moment of the action'.

His second act, cited when he received his VC, came in June the following year, when he was serving as a lieutenant with the Rifle Brigade, and volunteered for an attack using ladders on heavily defended Russian positions.
According to the citation: 'He remained in the field until he was twice wounded, all the time acting with great gallantry.'
It was during that attack, on a fortress defending the city of Sebastopol, that Knox was struck on the left arm by a cannonball, two inches in diameter, that was picked up and handed to him by a comrade.
Knox kept a scrapbook of copies of letters recording his experiences - including of the days which secured him the VC, Britain's highest award for gallantry.
Medal expert Oliver Pepys, of Spink auctioneers, which is offering the VC for sale next month, said: 'Major Knox showed incredible bravery, losing his arm to cannon fire in the process.
'The lot is fascinating, the medal is being sold with a Russian cannonball, the very one that smashed into Knox's arm. In all my years of working with rare medals and war artefacts I have never seen a more unusual keepsake.
'We have researched the circumstances around the loss of Major Knox's arm and have discovered a fellow soldier picked up the ball and gave it to him as a memento.
'This medal is of huge historical significance, the VC is still the highest honour a soldier can receive.'
Mr Pepys said his research had shown that on the day of Major Knox's second VC citation, his left arm was hit twice - first by the cannonball and then, minutes later, by a small piece of grapeshot. The two hits meant it had to be amputated at the socket urgently.
The Victoria Cross was instituted in 1856. The medals were - and still are - cast from bronze taken from cannons captured from the Russians at Sebastopol.
After the Crimean War, Knox married, had seven children, and served as a musketry instructor until retiring in 1872 as a Major.
He was then a governor of prisons and died in Cheltenham aged 68 in 1897.
The VC is being sold alongside three other medals he was awarded - the Crimea Medal, the French Legion of Honour and the Turkish Crimea Medal. The seller is remaining anonymous.

ANTIQUES ARE GREEN

I have been involved with antiques for most of my life and am delighted to see that there is now an organisation in the antiques trade to promoted the concept that antiques are green. Below is an interview with the founder and contact details. It's free to join.
_______________________________________
Early in 2009, I was talking with a few colleagues about the environmental benefits of antiques in the home. This was something that I had not previously discussed with customers in my shop but now I tried raising the subject.
After a few minutes conversation, a look of enlightenment appeared. First, the customer related antiques to recycling. Then, as the conversation progressed, it became evident that their purchase would result in minimal greenhouse gases, no rain forests would be depleted and no additional minerals would be extracted from the Earth. Customers felt comfortable about their purchase with the understanding that “antiques are green”. They could now justify their purchase and enjoy a feel good factor as well.
It seemed that it would benefit the whole Antiques Trade if the buying public were aware of this message before they came in to see us. With a suitable campaign, potential customers would know that antiques were green because they had read it in the press, seen and heard it on TV and found the same “Antiques are Green” logo wherever they went. As members of the antiques trade, we may all sell more and do our bit for the environment. By changing the perception of antiques to that of an attractive alternative to buying new goods, we might even attract new customers who previously would not have considered antiques.
In March, Antiques Trade Gazette published my letter on the subject and this led to some important contacts, including John Fiske who has himself been promoting Antiques are Green in the USA.
Following a presentation at the ATG Conference in May, an on-line vote to select a campaign logo took place in the Antiques Trade Gazette and BBC Homes and Antiques Magazine. The Trade and public voted on a selection of Antiques are Green logos and both groups chose the one that you now see on the website.
The campaign is being developed under the umbrella of a not-for-profit organisation. Its success will benefit both the antiques trade and the environment, in accordance with our formal aims and objectives.
Online Galleries have prepared this website and Dealers are invited to submit their stock.
Anyone interested or involved with the trade is invited to become a part of Antiques are Green and use this website to promote themselves, their product or their service. Please join the campaign now.
I would especially like to thank Mark Bridge and Sarah Percy Davis for their help with this project in its early stages.

Nigel Worboys

antiquesaregreen.org

New Zealand Ghost Auction Sparks Ethical Debate About Capturing, Selling Ghosts

by Robert Quigley March 4th, 2010

A New Zealander who claims to have captured two ghosts and bottled them with holy water and has now put them up for sale on an auction website has incited a national debate that threatens to overturn old Lord of the Rings sets, pit the north and south islands against each other, and possibly upset some kiwis: Is it ethical to sell ghosts?

In this instance, we are assuming that “the nation of New Zealand” can safely be represented by “a bunch of people who are commenting on an auction website.” Hey, that’s what Australia’s Herald-Sun newspaper did:

TWO vials, which the owner claims contain the spirits of ghosts exorcised from a house in New Zealand, have been put up for sale on online auction site, TradeMe.
So far, bidding on “Two Captured Ghosts” had reached $NZ410 ($A316), and incited hundreds of comments, with advice ranging from how to get rid of the spirits for good, to the ethics of selling someone else’s captured immortal essence.
Alas, the Herald-Sun didn’t reprint any of the comments from the auction thread, some of which get quite spirited:

• “This auction is very wrong and extremely disrespectful. Spirits are energy and are peoples relatives, you don’t have the right to do this (on the account that this is true). I think its wrong and I think auctioning them off is sick. If you believe in this stuff would you want your mother’s spirit to be bottled? If your answer is no then you know what to do, empty them somewhere away from your house and let them be. Their energy has every right to be as you have every right to live.”

• “cool auction – As a Worshipper of Beelzebub, I am interesting in obtaining these 2 spirits and teasing them for a bit, I believe this will bring me good luck. Do you have any other trapped do-gooders for future auctions ? As a wee army of trapped souls, could be quite fun too. Thanks in advance.”

• “So you believe you’ve got someones family member in a bottle for them to ‘play around with’. Sick. Absolutely sick.”

• “REPENT,THE END IS NIGH”

Bidding has since ratcheted up to $1,010 New Zealand Dollars ($700 U.S.), and the auction, which has been covered by a host of Australian print, TV, and radio outlets, has since instigated its own set of ghost auction-related memelets on TradeMe.

Bidding war for Chinese Imperial vase discovered at local Irish auction

By Laura Roberts
Published: 7:30AM GMT 04 Mar 2010
After an opening offer of £45 (€50) the blue-and-white piece, which is 12 inches high, sold for £99,808 (€110,000) to a London-based collector who beat another dealer who had flown in from Beijing.
The item was part of a collection of Chinese porcelain inherited by an unnamed Co Carlow family and put up for sale at Sheppards Irish Auction House in Durrow, Co Laois.

Richard Peters, 48, who runs an antiques business in Kensington, said: “I got a bargain.”
He believes the vase, which is known in Chinese as hu-yu-chun-ping and decorated with banana and bamboo trees, was “made for the personal collection of the Emperor Qianlong in the 18th century”.
It had “probably been looted from the Imperial Palace in Peking by French or British or American soldiers sometime during the 19th century”, he added while admitting that the field of Chinese ceramics is “difficult because the market is filled with fakes and forgeries”.
The underbidder Rong Chen, 48, said she was “very sad and disappointed” to lose. Her husband, an accountant and antique collector, had spotted the vase on the Internet. “This is the one – we think it was in the Imperial household,” she said.
Michael Sheppard, the auctioneer, said the sale was "the highest figure ever achieved for any item” in the 60-year history of the family-run firm of auctioneers and valuers. He said “something like this happens once in a lifetime”.
Mr Peters bought a second lot – a pair of Chinese polychrome vases – for £37,210 (€41,000). Like the Imperial vase, the items had carried a guide price of €100-€150.
Mr Peters returned to London last night with the items, which he is likely to sell to a Chinese client.
As he left the auction David Stapleton, from the nearby town of Ballyragget, told the Irish Times: “It was one of those moments. You had to be there – like the GPO in 1916.”

A walking stick given to diplomat by a King is expected to fetch around £300 at auction.*

Sir Ralph Champneys Williams was presented with a walking stick by Edward VII in the early 1900s, but that stick was destroyed in a fire.
Later, Sir Ralph's son wrote to King George VI to ask for a replacement, and the monarch sent him another stick which had belonged to Edward VII.
Despite its low value, auctioneers said the stick's story was "heart-warming".
Sir Ralph, born in Llanddeiniolen, was a former acting governor of Barbados, and he met King Edward VII and Queen Mary at the start of the 20th Century. The King presented him with one of his walking sticks, and the stick accompanied Sir Ralph wherever he was posted.
However, years later the stick was destroyed in a fire at his son's house in Kenya.
Sir Ralph's son, Major Geoffrey Howard-Williams, wrote to the then King, George VI, to ask for a replacement.
A letter from the King's personal secretary was sent from Sandringham, dated 29 December 1945.
It read: "I write to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of 31st October.
"Under separate cover I am forwarding you, by direction of the King, a walking stick which belonged to King Edward VII to replace the one which you had the misfortune to lose when your house burnt down.
"It has taken a little time to find this stick, which accounts for the delay, but His Majesty hopes that it may prove a suitable substitute."
The replacement stick - which bears the stamp "Balmoral" and Edward VII's crest - remained in the family.
Sir Ralph's great-grandson, the present owner, discovered it when he was clearing his late father's home in Devon.
It will be auctioned, along with the letter that accompanied it, on 27 February.
Auctioneer Duncan Chilcott said: "Obviously this walking stick - like the one it replaced - was a dear friend to Sir Ralph and while it is likely to sell for less than £300 the story behind how it came to be sent from Sandringham to Kenya is really heart-warming.
"Clearly Sir Ralph was held in very high regard by the Royal Family and it is a mark of King George's generosity, for which he was well known.

*I disagree with the auctioneer’s valuation. I predict that it will go a good bit higher.

Rare copy of first Batman will be most valuable comic book ever offered at public auction, Feb. 25

A rare copy of the first Batman comic book has far surpassed the previous comic books record price, $317,000, paid for a first Superman comic in 2009, and the bidding is still underway with Batman already at $418,250. Super heroes and pop culture fans will learn the final, new record price when the auction ends on Feb. 25.
"One of the finest known surviving copies of the 1939 issue of Detective Comics #27, the first appearance of Batman, is being offered without reserve by Heritage Auctions in a public auction in Dallas, and simultaneously online," said Lon Allen, Director of Sales for the Comics Division of Heritage Auctions (www.HA.com). "It's been an amazing thing to watch as the price has soared. Collectors know this may well be the only shot they will ever get at this, the ultimate comic book. Who knows how high it will go by the time bidding ends?"
"It was owned for decades and kept in excellent condition by a savvy comic book collector who purchased it for $100 more than 40 years ago," said Allen. "In the 1960s and 1970s many people considered that an outrageous amount of money to spend for a comic book of any era.”
"The Bat-Man," as he was originally called, appeared for the first time in a six-page story in Detective Comics #27 with a cover date of May 1939. Superman appeared a year earlier in Action Comics #1 with a cover date of June 1938.
For additional information, contact Heritage Auctions at (800) 872-6467 or visit online at www.HA.com.

The World's first postal order sold at Auction.

The world's first postal order, purchased for just one shilling 129 years ago, has been sold for £4,485 at an auction.

Buzz up!
The payment, which bears the serial number 000001, was the first to be produced by the Post Office in Lombard Street, London, in 1881.


"This was a very unique item and as such went for a lot more than predicted. There were lots of bids from enthusiasts. It's been in the same family for over 130 years so the opportunity to own something as rare as this doesn't come up very often. Collectors were always going to have to dig into their pockets to own this and clearly they did," the Telegraph quoted auctioneer Richard Beale, of Warwick and Warwick Auctioneers, as saying.

Only five other 1881 postal orders having the same 000001 number are known to have survived.

Victorians used the postal order to safely send money
through the post.

The first postal order was bought by Arthur Bull on January 1, 1881.

It was signed by a clerk named A.G. Emery but Arthur never cashed it, thinking it would become a collector's item one day.

He kept it in a leather case and locked it in his family's safe before his son, also named Arthur Bull, inherited it.

After Arthur Bull junior's death in 1953 the postal order passed to his son Brian Galpin, who kept it safe in his home in Surrey.

And when Galpin died at 72 in 2005, the postal order passed to his widow Audrey, 75, who agreed to auction it.

The Postal Order is a direct descendent of the money order which was introduced by a private company in 1792.

During World War One and World War Two, British Postal Orders were temporarily used as money to save paper and labour.

Postal Orders can be bought and redeemed at post offices in Britain, even though a crossed Postal Order must be paid into a bank account. (ANI)

Christie’s Announces Green Auction “A Bid To Save The Earth”

In order to drive awareness throughout Earth Week, Christie’s International has announced the 2010 Inaugural Green Auction titled, “A Bid to Save the Earth.”

The green auction, which takes place on April 22, will include major artwork, celebrity experiences, upscale eco-vacations, exquisite jewellery, and luxury items.

Proceeds from the sale will be divided among four non-profit environmental organizations: Conservation International, Oceana, Natural Resources Defense Council and the Central Park Conservancy.

“We are inspired and honored to convene top members of the philanthropic, environmental, business and cultural communities to benefit the environment,” said Edward Dolman, CEO of Christie’s. “We are equally pleased to present a stellar evening auction and to partner with NBC Universal in telling this exciting story with Charitybuzz in building such a compelling silent auction; and of course our four charity partners, who will do what they do best with the proceeds: advocate for the environment.”

SA flag from Mandela's inauguration up for auction

A London auction house is selling a South African flag that flew during Nelson Mandela's inauguration as the country's first black president.

Auctioneer Bonhams says the 5 foot by 7 1/2 foot flag was flown from a helicopter above the ceremony in Pretoria on May 10, 1994.

It is signed by Mandela, his predecessor F.W. De Klerk and his successor Thabo Mbeki and comes with a certificate of authenticity.

Mandela's inauguration was one of the first occasions on which South Africa's multicolored post-apartheid flag was displayed.

The flag is expected to sell for £10,000 to £15,000 on March 24.

Bonhams did not identify the seller Wednesday but says the flag was previously owned by the helicopter pilot, Maj. Louis de Waal.
..................................................

Anyone who wants something less expensive can come to the Green Room, 192 Archway Road, London N6 5BB. We have a genuine ballot paper from the first free SA elections which includes a photo of Mandela. Unused. Price only £9.

Skull withdrawn from auction

A New York City auction house says a human skull that had been used as a ballot box by Yale's elite Skull and Bones society has been withdrawn from sale.

Christie's said Friday that the 19th century skull was being removed from the Jan. 22 sale due to a title claim. The auction house declined further comment.

The skull had been expected to sell for $10,000 to $20,000. Christie's only identified the seller as a European art collector.

The skull is fitted with a hinged flap and is believed to have been used during voting at the mysterious society's meetings. The club was founded in 1832 and publicly known members, called Bonesmen, include both presidents Bush and Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry.

Churchill's half-smoked cigar to be auction in Norfolk

A half-smoked cigar, abandoned by wartime prime minister Winston Churchill, is up for sale in Norfolk.

The four-inch unfinished "smoke" could fetch more than £300 because it came from the lips of the famous cigar-smoking statesman before he dashed away to an urgent cabinet meeting.

Proof of its owner is thanks to an enterprising Downing Street valet, Nellie Goble, who grabbed the cigar, and a sheet of number 10 notepaper, on which she penned a note to a friend saying: "Just a small souvenir to remind you at some future date of one of the greatest men that ever lived in England."

The cigar will be sold on Friday, January 29, at Keys auction room at Aylsham, where expert Andrew Bullock expected it to excite worldwide interest among collectors of Sir Winston Churchill memorabilia.

Cigars belonging to Churchill occasionally came up for sale, but "I am not aware of many others that have survived after being half-smoked by the great man himself," he said.

"It was extremely rare for Churchill not to finish a cigar, so it must have been something very, very urgent that demanded his immediate attention in the cabinet room. As this was wartime, it is fascinating to speculate as to what it might have been that was so important," said Mr Bullock.

It was on August 22, 1941, that the cigar was abandoned - a day when the advancing German army reached Leningrad, leading to a historic siege.

And just a week earlier, Churchill had been in top secret meetings with American president Franklyn D Roosevelt, on board a cruiser anchored off Newfoundland, over the Atlantic Charter, a blueprint for a post-war world, which was the seed for the creation of the United Nations.

The call that interrupted his cigar could have related to either of those momentous happenings.

The cigar was treasured by Nellie's friends and proudly shown off to visitors, then passed to a daughter, now a pensioner living in north Norfolk who kept the stub wrapped in the precious note in a drawer.

She wanted to remain anonymous but said: "It rarely comes out of the drawer, so it seems better to sell it to someone who will truly appreciate it. If it doesn't fetch the earth, it won't break my heart. I just want it to go to somebody who will get some real pleasure from owning it."

In November, a butter dish used as an ashtray by Churchill at the London dining and debating club he co-founded was sold for £4,200 - almost three times its estimate.

The cigar and note, lot 1343, will be sold on the second day of Keys' next books auction on Friday, January 29. Contact the saleroom on 01263 733195 or at www.aylshamsalerooms.co.uk. Viewing is on Wednesday, January 27, 8.30am-7.30pm; Thursday, January 28, 8.30am-10am; and on the day of the sale, 8.30am-11am.

Skull 'ballot box' from Skull & Bones Society to be auctioned

A human skull that apparently was turned into a ballot box for Yale's mysterious Skull and Bones society is going on the auction block.
Christie's estimates the skull will sell for $10,000 to $20,000 when it is auctioned on Jan. 22. Fittingly, the auction house has agreed to keep the seller's name a secret. On Monday, it described the person only as a European art collector.
The skull is fitted with a hinged flap and is believed to have been used during voting at the famous society's meetings. The auction house said it also may have been displayed at the society's tomblike headquarters on Yale's campus in New Haven, Conn., during the late 1800s.
Skull and Bones, an elite society founded in 1832, has closely guarded its members' names and its activities since the early 1970s. Prior to that time, the group published an annual roster.
Publicly known members, known as Bonesmen, include President William Howard Taft, both presidents Bush, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, businessman and diplomat Averell Harriman, publisher Henry Luce and author and commentator William F. Buckley Jr.
"I think it's a macabre artifact," Margot Rosenberg, head of Christie's American decorative arts department, said Tuesday. "It's an intriguing story tied to America, tied to Yale. I think it will generate interest for people who are former Bonesmen, people who collect Americana, people who are interested in history."
The skull is believed to have been owned by Edward T. Owen, who graduated Yale in 1872 and went to become professor of French and linguistics at the University of Wisconsin. The word THOR is etched into the skull; it may have been the nickname given to Owen or another society member.
The skull is being sold with a black book, inscribed with Owen's name, the year 1872 and the numeral 322, a reference to the society's year of inception and to the death of the orator Demosthenes in 322 B.C. It contains the names and photographs of about 50 Bonesmen, including Taft, who became the 27th president of the United States; Morrison Remick Waite, who became U.S. chief justice in 1874; and William Maxwell Evarts, who served as U.S. secretary of state and U.S. attorney general.
Skull and Bones invites 15 Yale seniors to join each year. Bonesmen swear an oath of secrecy about the group and its strange rituals, which include initiation rites such as confessing sexual secrets and kissing a skull.
On Tuesday, the society's secrecy remained intact. Efforts to reach a society member or a representative of its business arm, the Russell Trust Association, through a Yale spokesman were unsuccessful. The Ivy League school, which is not affiliated with the society, did not return a reporter's call.

$4 million hockey stick on auction block

TORONTO, Jan. 15 (UPI) -- A hand-carved hickory stick said to be a 150-year-old precursor to modern hockey sticks will be auctioned next month during the Vancouver Winter Olympics.
The online auction firm VIPthrills.com announced it was offering "the single most important piece of hockey memorabilia in existence" after a Feb. 12-28 viewing in Vancouver in the run-up to the Games, the Canwest News Service reported.
The stick is owned by Gordon Sharpe, of Cobourg, Ontario, who said it was an inheritance from an ancestor who carved it.
The auctioneer claims the stick's historical significance puts it in the $4 million range, although it failed to change hands at a bid as high as $2.2 million in the most recent auction attempt on the eBay online site in 2006.
Sharpe said in a statement announcing the auction potential proceeds wouldn't all be personal profit.
"I realize the sale of the stick could help raise millions for charity," Sharpe said. "I think it's the best thing to do."

Unpublished Diary of Nazi Dr. Josef Mengele for auction

Renowned auctioneers Alexander Autographs has uncovered an incredibly rare find: notorious Auschwitz death camp Dr. Josef Mengele's treatise on eugenics and euthanasia, written by him in 1960 while in hiding in Argentina. The document will be offered along with over 1,400 other lots of historic autographs at auction on January 20th and 21st commencing at 10:00 AM at the auction house's Stamford headquarters.

Mengele, who escaped capture until his death by drowning in 1979, proves himself an unrepentant racist. Ironically penned on over 180 pages in a children's zoological workbook, the unrepentant Nazi incredibly wavers between describing his rescue of a cow trapped in a mud bog, to demanding the extermination of "inferior morons". He claims: "We have to make sure that nature's suspended eradication will continue through human arrangements...the real problem is to define when human life is worth living and when it has to be eradicated...birth control can be done by sterilizing those with deficient genes...". Also included in the sale is a war-date letter written by Mengele while at Auschwitz to his wife looking forward to their "imaginary reunion" and hoping for a transfer to a "combat unit".

When asked if he felt any qualms about offering material signed by such despicable individuals, auction house president Bill Panagopulos replied: "Make no mistake about it – I have no sympathy for these monsters. My father's home town was wiped-out by the Nazis in a reprisal action. But it is of vital importance that such documents remain available as tangible evidence of the evil deeds of the past, as well as to provide further pieces of history's puzzle".

Bids may be left at Alexander Autograph's website (www.alexautographs.com),

Dickens toothpick fetches $9,000 in New York auction

An ivory and gold toothpick once owned by Charles Dickens has sold at auction in New York City for $9,150 (£5,625).

The item is engraved with the author's initials. It was sold by heirs to the Barnes and Noble family.

The pre-sale estimate was $3,000 to $5,000. The auctioneer, Bonhams, said the buyer did not want to be named.

An authentication letter from Dickens's sister-in-law says the author of Great Expectations and A Christmas Carol used the toothpick up to his death in 1870.

The author, also known by the pen-name of Boz, created some of the most memorable fictional characters of all time.

Stephen Fry's Kingdom props for auction

By DOMINIC CHESSUM
From bundles of fake £50 notes to the sign which once hung above The Startled Duck pub, costumes, props and memorabilia seen in the hit Sunday night TV drama Kingdom are set to go under the hammer at a Norfolk auction room later this month.

Two auctions at Watton Sale Rooms will see hundreds of lots from the axed ITV show sold to the highest bidder.

Despite rumours earlier this year that a fourth series was in the offing, the show, which was filmed in Norfolk, was cancelled in October and now production company Parallel films is selling off a warehouse full of Kingdom goodies.

In the first sale, which will take place next Tuesday, furniture, outside props and set décor will go under the hammer and then a week later, on December 22, costumes, signs and other memorabilia will be auctioned off.

Auctioneer Stephen Roberts said: “There are thousands of items.

“There is furniture, signs, including road signs for Market Shipborough, Fakenheath and the A147, and no end of stuff that is in boxes including the boxed up possessions of each character.”

In one of the desks staff at the saleroom found a framed photo of Celia Imrie, who played Gloria, and the boy who played her son.

“When you look at the amount of things it makes you realise the attention to detail that went into making the series,” added Mr Roberts.

The memorabilia will be auctioned off along with other items which have come into the sale rooms and though many of the Kingdom pieces only have value as bits of furniture others, such as The Startled Duck sign, could fetch considerably more if serious collectors enter the bidding.

Mr Roberts continued: “It is impossible to say what things will go for.

“It is like everything else that comes up at auction - it is worth what somebody is prepared to pay for it.

“If we have some people who are fans then things will make money.”

Star items in the auction are expected to include Peter Kingdom's desk, the Startled Duck sign and the wooden duck which sat on the pub bar.

There could also be stiff competition for some of the Market Shipborough road signs.

During its three season run Kingdom regularly attracted upwards of five million viewers who were eager to catch up with the latest mysteries and exploits of the Norfolk solicitor and his eccentric family, strange clients and hapless colleagues.

The show has also been screened in America, Australia and in several other European countries.

As well as Stephen Fry, who played Peter Kingdom, the show also starred Celia Imrie as Gloria Millington, Tony Slattery as Sidney Snell and Karl Davies as Lyle Anderson.

For Norfolk champion Mr Fry, who has a home near Swaffham, starring in Kingdom was a dream job.

He was the one who broke the news of the show's cancellation on his Twitter micro-blog back in October.

At the time he said: “Our masters at ITV have decided there shan't be a fourth series of the television drama Kingdom.

“I am sorry because it was such a pleasure making them in my beloved Norfolk.

“The cast of local people who cheerfully subjected themselves to the indignities of a background artist's day will all be missed and their memories cherished.”

ITV later confirmed the move. In a statement it said: “Kingdom has performed well for us over the last three years but we will not be developing any further episodes.

“As has always been the case we are constantly looking at ways to refresh the mix of drama on ITV1 to ensure that we get the balance right between both old and new titles.”

The first auction takes place on December 15 at Watton Sale Rooms, off Norwich Road, and begins at 10am. The second will take place on December 22. Items will be available for view the day before. For more information call 01953 885676.

Tony Benn's tea cosy sells at auction.

The Animal Aid auction on Sunday was great. here are some of the results.

1. Giant Montezuma dark chocolate tree donated by Veganstore £20

2. Signed book, “Barcelona Plates”, written by Alexei Sayle plus a signed photo £14

3. Signed photo of Russell Brand £10

4. Voucher for a high quality, ethically produced portrait of your pets and family. Donated by Sarah Moynihan £40

5. Signed photo of X Factor presenter, Dermot O’Leary £8

6. Photo of Arsenal FC first team plus a signed pennant and certificate of authentication £105

7. Signed photo of David Tennant as Dr Who £30

8. Signed Kylie Minogue CD, “Boombox” plus certificate of authentication £40

9. Voucher donated by Redwoods Foods. £35

10. Tony Benn’s very own teacosy! £47

11. Voucher for a pair of shoes donated by Vegetarian Shoes. £65

12. Signed photo’s of Adam Croasdell and Marc Elliott as Dr Jenkins and Syed Masood from EastEnders £15

13. Shirt worn by actress Helen Worth, who plays Gail Platt in Coronation Street. She wore this shirt in a scene in Corrie. Includes certificate of authentication £10

14. Signed photo of Manic Street Preachers plus rare signed EP, “God Save The Manics”. The mother of bass player Nicky, donated this item to Animal Aid. £75

15. Signed photo of Steven Gerrard who plays for Liverpool FC and the England National Team £25

16. Fake leather dog coat from Pete Townshend. The coat was owned by Pete and was made for him by a fan. £55

17. Signed photo of Rebecca Addlington - 2008 Olympic gold medallist. She is the first British swimmer to win a gold medal in 100 years. £5

18. Signed photo of Joanna Lumley as Patsy in Absolutely Fabulous £38

19. Laser signed photo of the cast of Coronation Street £97

20. Case of vegan wine donated by Vinceremos £85

21. £50 voucher donated by Ethical Wares £35

22. Vintage Animal Aid campaign T-shirt signed by A.T. £12

Raphael drawing sells for £29.2M in London auction

(AP)

LONDON — Auctioneer Christie's says a drawing by Raphael has sold for about 29.2 million pounds ($47.5 million).

Christie's says the Italian virtuoso's work has won one of the highest prices ever paid for an Old Master at auction.

A portrait by Dutch master Rembrandt also fetched a high price, selling for 20 million pounds ($32.7 million).

The auctioneer said the works were sold Tuesday as part of its Old Masters and 19th century art sale in London.

Auction at Christmas without Cruelty Fayre

CHRISTMAS WITHOUT CRUELTY FAYRE takes place this coming Sunday Nov. 6th.10am-5pm.

Venue, Kensington Town Hall, just yards away from High Street Kensington Tube.

As usual, I will be running the Green Party/Green Room stall. I will also be conducting the Auction at 2.30pm.

Our stall is downstairs outside the creche.

Hope to meet loads of you there. If you haven't been there before, it really is a wonderful event.

*£8 for empty plastic bag at auction

The auction on Saturday was a great success.

Adams & Smith Auctioneers (alias artists Hollington & Kyprianou)put on a very professional production. About 50 people attended. I was introduced after a rousing rendition of all six verses of The Internationale.

Among the prices realised:

Packet of anadins......£5.50.

A used golf ball.......£40. This allowed me a rant about the iniquities of Donald Trump's vandalism in Scotland and 'Scottish Clearances'

Bottle of water........£4. The greatest con of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Empty plastic bag......£8. Allowed me to give a quick briefing on these environmental terrors and mention my GLA paper 'Plastic not Fantastic'

Banking counter pen and holder......£48. Made the point that while people were expected to trust the banks, the banks didn't even trust their customers with a plastic pen!!

Several hundred pounds was raised to help send protestors to Copenhagen.

The whole event was filmed and will be available in the near future.


See more at www.electronicsunset.org

Auction this Saturday.

On this coming Saturday, I will be conducting my unusual auction - ever. I am being transported to the year 2034 to auction off some post-capitalist artifacts.

See the details here:

Welcome to Adams & Smith, auctioneers of late-Capitalist era artefacts.
http://adamsandsmith.wordpress.com/


The year is 2034.

The era of free market capitalism and neo liberalism is well and truly over, and a new world order has taken its place.

In its wisdom, the Federal Council of Autonomous Zones has issued a directive abolishing all cash transactions. To celebrate, Adams & Smith proudly offer 13 lots of genuine, once ubiquitous late capitalist artefacts taken from the Hollington & Kyprianou estate.

Each lot reveals a curious aspect of that bygone age, shedding light on the odd and dangerously contradictory practices of the time. With provenance certified by Tamasin Cave of SpinWatch, each lot unearths the unsavoury history connecting government, big business and the lobbying industry.

With this last ever auction, Adams & Smith are pleased to offer you a final opportunity to bring the trappings of late-Capitalism back into your life.

Galileo's fingers found in jar bought at auction.

(CNN) -- Two fingers cut from the hand of Italian astronomer Galileo nearly 300 years ago have been rediscovered more than a century after they were last seen, an Italian museum director said Monday.

They were purchased recently at an auction by a person who brought them to the Museum of the History of Science in Florence, suspecting what they were, museum director Paolo Galluzzi said.

Three fingers were cut from Galileo's hand in March 1737 when his body was moved from a temporary monument to its final resting place in Florence, Italy. The last tooth remaining in his lower jaw was also taken, Galluzzi said.

Two of the fingers and the tooth ended up in a sealed glass jar that disappeared sometime after 1905.

There had been "no trace" of them for more than 100 years until the person who bought them in the auction came to the museum recently.

"I was very curious," the Galluzzi said.

"There is a description from 1905 by the last person to have seen these objects. It provides us with a very detailed description of the container and the contents inside," Galluzzi explained.

The jar "matches in every minute detail" the description, Galluzzi said.
But by the time the urn went on sale, the label saying what was inside had been lost, so the sellers and the auctioneer did not realize its significance.

"Everybody knew there were fingers and a tooth, but the people preparing the auction didn't know it was Galileo," Galluzzi said.

The owner who bought the fingers wants to remain anonymous, Galluzzi said, so the museum is not giving more details about who sold them or when.

The museum plans to display the fingers and tooth in March 2010, after it re-opens following a renovation, Galluzzi said.

The museum has had the third Galileo finger since 1927, so the digits will be reunited for the first time in centuries, he added.

He said it was little surprise that the 18th century followers of Galileo would have mimicked the practice of those who persecuted him.

It is not yet clear whether enough organic material remains in the newly discovered fingers for DNA testing, Galluzzi said, but if there is, it could shed light on the blindness that afflicted Galileo late in his life and his final illness.

Galileo Galilei invented the telescope -- among many other achievements -- which enabled him to discover that the planet Jupiter has moons. He became the foremost advocate of Copernican astronomy, which denied that the earth was the fixed centre of the universe. He died in 1642.

Painting by Queen Victoria sells in ‘Royal Car Boot’ auction

It is an unpredictable business, selling off the family silver. When the family possessions of the late Duke of Kent were auctioned in London yesterday, there were two things of which one could be fairly certain: that there would be a huge interest in the sale and much speculation about why the Duke’s heirs — who include Prince Michael of Kent — needed to mount what has been described as the Royal Family’s car boot sale.

What might not have been predicted is that an egg cup would be sold for £14,000, while a Coronation chair would fail to sell at all. Even a back-scratcher went for £4,000 and a set of tea towels from Sandringham fetched £2,000, helping the collection of 336 lots to reach a total of £2.1 million.

The red silk-covered chair chair, made for the Duke of Kent to use at the Coronation of his brother, George VI, in 1937, was meant to be one of the star items. It was one of the few lots put on display at the Christie’s sale and had been given an estimate of £15,000 to £20,000.

When bidding struggled to reach £9,500, failing to reach its reserve, Ted Clive, the auctioneer, was obliged to withdraw it from the sale. “I was surprised,” he said afterwards. “But stranger things have happened. It is an important object, but an important historical object. It is clearly an exhibition object — it is not something that could be used. On the day, there was not a potential buyer for an exhibition object.”

He had better luck with the egg cup, but then it was no ordinary egg cup. Billed as a Russian grey Kalgan jasper egg cup with rhodonite egg, it was stamped with the Russian imperial coat of arms, and sold for about ten times its estimate of £1,000 to $1,500.

The auction was not the first time that the late Duke’s property has gone under the hammer. After he died in a plane crash in 1942, Princess Marina, his widow, was dropped from the Civil List. Most of her husband’s money was left in trust for his children, Prince Michael, the Duke of Kent and Princess Alexandra. The three-day sale of his possessions in 1947 raised £92,300. Princess Marina died in 1968.
The family says that many of the lots had been in storage and they decided that it was time for a clear-out. The auction does come at an opportune time: Prince and Princess Michael, who are not working members of the Royal Family, will from next year have to pay £120,000 annual rent for their home at Kensington Palace — previously the rent has been paid by the Queen. In 2006 the couple sold their home at Nether Lypiatt in Gloucestershire for £5.75 million.

The auction included silverware, furniture, tapestries and other works of art. It is a fine art judging how much people will pay at auction, particularly a royal one. Christie’s followed its traditional practice of publishing highly conservative estimates for most lots. A picnic set that belonged to George V, put down at £500-£700, went to an internet bidder from the Netherlands for £11,875. A pair of mahogany George III hall benches estimated at £30,000-£50,000 went for £187,250.

Precious cast-offs

The lots sold included:
Grand Duchess Elena Vladimirovna’s dressing table service: £6,000
An album of photographs by the Grand Duchess: £8,125
King George II Coronation canopy bell: £13,750
Silver necklace with miniature photographs of Victoria, Albert and their nine children: £2,750
Portrait by Queen Victoria of her daughter Princess Louise, after Franz Xavier Winterhalter: £10,000
Cartier Art Deco gold-mounted clock: £76,850
Silver model of Bentley-Jackson Special “Mother Gun”, as driven by Prince Michael in 1992: £20,000
Gold and enamel necklace by Nardi of Venice, given to Princess Michael of Kent: £7,500
Silver and enamel notepad holder, given to Princess Mary, later Princess Royal and Countess of Harewood: £4,750

JFK’s last autograph sold at auction

London, November 16 (ANI): The last autograph signed by late US President John F Kennedy has been auctioned off for a whopping 39,000 dollars.

He had signed it next to the date, Nov 22, 1963 on the front page of a copy of the Dallas Morning News, on the day he was assassinated.

A woman in the crowd had requested for the autograph, just two hours before his death.

Now, Joe Maddalena, president and owner of Profiles in History in Calabassas, California has purchased the item.

He plans to “hold on to it for a while and put it on display with other JFK items at the appropriate times.”

“It’s chillingly historic because it documents the day, documents the location and it’s certainly one of the last signatures of John Kennedy,” the Telegraph quoted Doug Norwine, a director at Heritage Auctions, as saying. (ANI)

When Auctioneers had bodyguards...

MEN with Uzi machine guns, blackmail from terrorists/criminals and empty auction rooms -- Irish auctioneers have faced them all down through the years. But how will they deal with the fall-out from the credit crunch?

With Finance Minister Brian Lenihan now finally admitting that the Government is facing its toughest economic test in 20 years, watch out for the repercussions.
Auctioneers are going to be up against it to clinch sales under the hammer in the weeks ahead. But don't despair -- the profession has a long track record of battling against the odds.

Our auctioneering professionals are unlikely to come up against anything worse than they have confronted before.

Auctioneering dates back to the earliest times. The Babylonians, for example, held marriage markets at which women were sold by auction.

Commenting on this in 1931, L V Bennett, president of the Irish Auctioneers' and Estate Agents' Association (fore-runner of the IAVI) observed wryly: "No information is given as to the disposal of the unattractive and, consequently, unsold lots, nor are we told if the auctioneer received his commission in kind".

By Roman times, the process of selling by auction had come to be recognised as the most convenient and equitable method of disposing of property in the best interests of buyer and seller.

During this period, the auctioneer was always a soldier who, as a signal of commencing the auction, stuck a spear in the ground -- hence the sale being described as "sub hasta" (under the spear).

As related in the book Under The Hammer: Property in Ireland, the history of the IAVI, auctioneering can indeed be a pretty hazardous business, even nowadays.
Repossessions or bank sales can be particularly tricky. A case in point was related by leading auctioneer Patrick Stephenson of James H North & Co, who described a gruelling experience when trying to sell a farm on the instructions of the High Court and on behalf of the Northern Bank.

The auction was preceded by a number of threatening phone calls to the auctioneer, who then applied to the court for an injunction to stop the owners "watching and besetting". He even received a mass card in the post. The auction was ultimately held with two detectives at the back of the room concealing Uzi machine guns beneath their coats. Happily, there were no actual fireworks.

Other auctioneers have had similar hair-raising experiences over the years (some involving threats from terrorists).

Auctions have always been a pretty hard-nosed business, however -- though much better regulated now than in days of yore.

Selling by an inch of a candle is mentioned by Samuel Pepys in his famous 1660 diary. During the bidding, a small piece of candle was burned and the last bidder before the candle went out was declared the buyer. In the mid-1920s, an auction held some 50 years earlier, during which the auctioneer remained silent is described in the IAA yearbook: "It is only right to mention he was not a Dublin auctioneer -- but, when anyone bid, he gave him a glass of brandy and the person who got the last glass of brandy was declared the purchaser of the lot offered for sale."
Now maybe that's the kind of spirited approach needed to perk up things in the auction rooms over the coming weeks ...
From the Irish Independent.

EBay for the rich: New auction site helps millionaires quietly offload pricey wares

In another sign the economy has plumbed new depths, the rich (who, need it be said, aren't like you and me) have a new, high-tech way to unload their lavish wares -- the Internet. U.S. millionaires down on their luck and looking to offload those heirloom family jewels, or that underutilized limousine, can now turn to an online auction site exclusively for the jet set called BillionaireXchange.

The company says it already has helped sell some $180 million in assets during a 10-month test phase, and has noticed an increase in the number of distressed transactions in the U.S., Reuters reported. "I would say that in the United States market, that's probably the majority of the types of the transactions that we're seeing right now," Quintin Thompson, co-founder and executive partner of BillionaireXchange, told the news agency.

Thompson said the recession has created a need for the rich to sell off luxury items in a discreet way to avoid shame and embarrassment. BillionaireXchange, which launched Monday, acts as a unique conduit to do just that. The company is looking to exploit the void between mass-market online auction sites, such as eBay (EBAY), and traditional luxury auction houses such as Sotheby's and Christie's, which generally focus on fine art and collectibles.

BillionaireXchange's online business model allows it to conduct sales and trades of nearly any type of high-end item, including businesses and foreclosed homes. The Miami-based company's business is aimed at an exclusive clientele, members with at least $2 million in verifiable net worth, Reuters said.

The site, the slogan for which is "Untouched by compromise," will charge sellers a 5% fee on sales, and would have raked in nearly $9 million in revenue if it had charged such a fee during the test phase, it said.

Among BillionaireXchange clients are professional athletes and A-list actors, Reuters said. The five-member firm claims more than 26,000 multimillionaires as well as "nearly a dozen" billionaires as its members.

Rare Jacobean manuscript sells for $84,000

Rare Jacobean manuscript sells for $84,000

WalesOnline


A rare Jacobean manuscript found in an old trunk stored in a castle attic sold at auction today for £84,000.

The hitherto unknown play by Lord Herbert of Cherbury, a close friend of the poet John Donne, was discovered in a folder marked “Old Poems” at Powis Castle, in Welshpool, Wales.

It was uncovered when the owner of the castle, the Earl of Powis, Dr John George Herbert, showed a team of experts two trunks of manuscripts during a valuation.

David Park, head of Bonhams’ books, maps and manuscript department said the discovery offered an insight into Lord Herbert’s literary aspirations – setting it apart from the other letters and poems found in the trunks.

“They contained the usual mixture. There were typed letters from the estate’s archive and the like mixed in with 17th century property deeds, themselves not without interest,” he said.

“It turned out later that everything in the trunks had been meticulously listed, item by item. But with one exception. This was a folder, marked, ”Old Poems“. Some of these were just 17th century copies – others were clearly in the hand of Lord Powis’s forebear, Lord Herbert of Cherbury.”

He said Lord Herbert, the elder brother of the poet George Herbert, wrote poems in the same ’metaphysical’ style as his close family friend, John Donne.

Until now, Lord Cherbury has been best known for his works on philosophy and a lively autobiography published by Horace Walpole in the 18th century.

“This tells us a great deal about his military prowess and how attractive women found him, but next to nothing about his literary ambitions,” Mr Park said.

But he added: “In this folder, there it was, a play, and clearly the draft of a play.”

He said the manuscript was full of crossings out and contained one heading, ’The Amazon’.

According to the auctioneers, an Amazon masque – a type of dramatic performance - was due to be performed before James I and his court on New Year’s Day in 1618 but it was cancelled for unknown reasons.

The manuscript itself, which is written in a pre-bound booklet of foolscap size, is set out in a manner favoured by professional dramatists of the period.

It was sold to an agent acting on behalf of an unknown buyer.

Beer Bottle from Hindenburg Disaster for auction

A singed bottle of beer recovered from the ashes of the Hindenburg disaster is expected to fetch $4,000 to $8,000 at auction this weekend -- the highest price ever for a bottle of beer.

Though most of the 62-year-old suds remain in the bottle, auctioneer Andrew Aldridge said the contents of the Lowenbrau bottle, discovered by a New Jersey firefighter in 1937 at the site of the airship's historic disaster, are undrinkable.

"It is the most valuable bottle of beer ever sold," said Aldridge of the British auction house Henry Aldridge & Sons. "But you wouldn't like to drink it, let me put it that way. It would taste putrid."

The Hindenburg, an enormous passenger-carrying hydrogen-filled German airship, burst into flames in May 6, 1937, over Lakehurst, N.J., killing 38 people.

The bottle, along with a silver-plated pitcher also discovered by fire Chief Leroy Smith at the scene of the disaster and estimated to fetch $17,000 to $22,000, is part of an auction of Hindenburg memorabilia going under the hammer on Saturday.
Scorch marks on both the bottle and the pitcher bear silent witness to the historic inferno.

"About 20 percent of the beer evaporated from the bottle. Some of the label is still intact and you can make out 'Lowenbrau' and 'Munich.' The label is heavily browned," said Aldridge.

The heat from the fire caused the seams of the pitcher's handle to pop, Aldridge said. The pitcher bears the logo of the Deutsche Zeppelin Reedrei airline that operated the famous Hindenburg

Smith, then the 37-year-old fire chief in Matawan, N.J, recovered six bottles and the pitcher while cleaning up in the wake of the disaster. He buried them in a field when the area was sealed off and dug them up later. He distributed five of the bottles to the members of his squad and kept one and the pitcher for himself.

In 1977, the widow of one fireman gave his bottle back to Smith, who then donated it to the Lowenbrau brewery where it remains today. Smith's niece received the fireman's bottle and the pitcher in the 1960s.

Aldridge, whose firm is the largest auctioneer of relics from the Titanic, said people are endlessly fascinated by disaster.

"The Hindenburg was the most famous air disaster in history," Aldridge said. "It was the largest airship to have ever flown and continues to fascinate people."

Lock of Elvis Presley's hair goes to auction on November 14th

A lock of Elvis Presley's hair will be on the auction block on November 14th.

The strand of hair from the King was saved for years by fan, Thomas B. Morgan Jr. He says he acquired it from Homer Gill Gilland, Mr. Presley's personal barber.

The auction house, Henry Aldridge & Son said the lock will be accompanied by letters, certification, and has a pre-auction estimate of £150 to £250.

Pound for pound, celebrity hair is now the most valuable commodity in the world. I have a bit of JFK hair for sale in The Green Room.

$100 K for a single comic book

$100 K for a single comic book?

They may be called "comics", but the money they're generating at auction is no laughing matter.

They're halfway through a 2-day event at Ameristar Casino being conducted by Mound City Auctions, and auctioneer Rob Weiman, reports that on Sunday, they sold a copy of "X-Men #1" for $101,000.

A copy of "Avengers #1" sold for $62,000, and Weiman says the total haul from Session 1 topped $490,000.

On Monday, it's more of the same.

"Justice League of America #1 graded at 8.5 (on a scale of 10)...that one we've been hearing a lot of buzz about from the guys who've been here to buy them," Weiman says. "I would say that one might go for as much as $30,000."

But the big fish in Monday's lot is expected to be a copy of "Amazing Fantasy #15", coveted by collectors because it's the first appearance of Spider-Man.

Even though it's only rated 8 out of 10 in part because it has some "off-white pages", Weiman anticipates the final selling price to be between $50,000 and $80,000, if not higher.

What makes grown men (and the buyers are almost exclusively male) shell out five figures for a single comic that's only 22-pages long and they'll likely never read?

"They're modern-day mythology, is what they are," Weiman submits. "It's the same as any other valuable collectible. A lot of people use them as sort of a hedge fund, an investment so to speak."

"Just like you can take your money and put it into foreign currency, stocks, bonds, gold."

And are comic books "art", or just pop culture?

Weiman casts his vote for "art".

"It might not have seemed that way up until recently," Weiman admits. "But in a lot of cases, I would say that there is definitely artistic quality and artistic integrity in the world of comic books."

For more information about Session 2 of the comic book auction at Ameristar Casino, go to www.moundcityauctions.com.

17th Century Women's Lib play for auction

A rare Jacobean manuscript of a play about women's liberation, which was found in a trunk at a castle, is expected to fetch £90,000 at auction.

The unknown play by Lord Edward Herbert was found during a valuation by auctioneers Bonhams at Powis Castle in Welshpool, Powys.

It is believed the play was to have been performed before James I and his court in 1618, but it was cancelled.

The manuscript of the play, called The Amazon, includes crossings out.

It was discovered by auctioneer Felix Pryor during a valuation, and will be auctioned next month.

He said it was found in a folder marked Old Poems and buried in a trunk, along with other documents, that had been stored in an attic at the castle.

'The Amazon'

Bonhams said the play was about women's liberation, and "how well women would do without men" and "how useful divorce is".

Mr Pryor said: "There were typed letters from the estate's archive and the like mixed in with 17th Century property deeds, themselves not without interest.

"It turned out later that everything in the trunks had been meticulously listed, item by item. But with one exception. This was a folder, marked, 'Old Poems'.

"Some of these were just 17th Century copies - others were clearly in the hand of Lord Powis's forebear, Lord Herbert of Chirbury.

"And in this folder, there it was. A play. And clearly the draft of a play.

"It had lots of crossings out. It even had a heading: The Amazon."

Mr Pryor said he had researched the manuscript and found that there had been a play of that name due to be performed before James I on New Year's Day in 1618.

But for some reason it had been cancelled.

He added: "The manuscript itself, which is written in a sort of pre-bound booklet of foolscap size, is set out in the manner that one can identify as typical of professional dramatists of the period."

The manuscript will be auctioned on 10 November by Bonhams.

Powis Castle was built by Welsh princes and is now home to the Earl of Powis.

The castle has a renowned garden with Italianate terraces, and has one of the finest collections of paintings and furniture in Wales.

There is also a collection of treasures from India displayed in the Clive Museum.

Europe’s first road atlas from 17th century to be sold at auction

Europe’s first road atlas from 17th century to be sold at auction


LONDON - The first road atlas of its kind in western Europe, a 17th century book showing a highway network in England and Wales of just 73 roads, is to be sold at an auction for up to £9,000.

According to a report in the Telegraph, the route atlas, published in 1675, includes 100 double pages of black and white maps laid out in continuous strips depicting the major roads and crossroads across England and Wales.

The work, by John Ogilby - Britannia Volume the First, or an Illustration of the Kingdom of England and Dominion of Wales - also marks the first time in England that an atlas was prepared on a uniform scale, at one inch to a mile. he 17th century map-maker claimed 26,600 miles of road was surveyed in the course of preparing the national road atlas, the first of its kind in any country in western Europe.

“What’s unusual about this book is that it is complete,” said Charles Ashton, an auctioneer at Cheffins Fine Art in Cambridge, where the atlas is expected to fetch up to £9,000 at an auction on October 29.

“A lot were published but over time many have been taken apart for their break-up value - in other words, the money that can be made by selling pages separately to be framed. It is very unusual for a first edition to have survived all these years in one piece,” he said.

“This is one of the original printing batch from 1675 and there are probably about 100 out there across the world - mostly in university and library collections,” he added.

According to Ashton, “From the outside it looks like nothing - the plain board cover is quite beaten up and unornamented, not elaborate at all. Looking at it from the outside, you would never guess how special this book is, but once you open it its full glory is revealed.”

Drink-drive chair up for auction

Police in the US state of Minnesota are planning to auction off a specially modified and motorised lounge chair whose owner crashed it while drunk.

Dennis LeRoy Anderson, 62, pleaded guilty last Monday to driving the La-Z-Boy while drunk in August last year.

The chair was impounded after he smashed into a parked car as he returned from a bar in Proctor.

The chair comes with a stereo, nitrous oxide booster, parachute and a "hell yeah it's fast" sticker.

Local police chief Walter Wobig told Agence France-Presse news agency the chair would be posted on eBay next week with no reserve price.

Minnesota police can auction off vehicles seized in drink-drive cases or keep them for official use.

The blue and black chair's other attractions include headlights and a steering wheel in the style of a drag-racer. It can reach up to 20mph (32km/h) with its lawnmower-powered engine.

Mr Anderson, who was not badly injured in the accident, was found to have three times the legal limit when arrested. He said he had drunk eight or nine beers.
Mr Anderson was sentenced to 180 days in jail, suspended pending two years of probation.

The Proctor Journal said the police department had received a number of calls and emails about the chair since the court case.

It quoted one interested party of "racers" as saying they lived outside Minnesota and the chair would "no longer be a menace to your town".

World’s most expensive coin fetches $1.2 million at Barcelona auction

The most expensive coin in the world was recently auctioned by auctioneers Aureo & Calicó in Barcelona.

The coin, the only remaining 1609 centen coin is the biggest solid gold coin to be minted in Spain!

This rare coin generated a lot of interest among bidders and fetched a winning bid of 800,000 Euros ($1,202,566)! The lucky bidder, identified only as bidder no. 74, a dealer from central Europe, could not hide his surprise when no-one else raised his opening bid of 800,000 Euros for the coin minted in Segovia.

This rare coin was the most priceless piece in the “Knight of the Yndias" collection (which comprises 2,200 pieces of gold from Spain and her former colonies) that was on auction.

Trafalgar flag fetches $680k at auction

A BRITISH flag believed to be the only surviving Union Jack from the Battle of Trafalgar has sold for a staggering £384,000 ($680,368) at auction in London.
The standard, put up for sale by its Australian-based owner, was expected to fetch in the region of £15,000 ($26,576) at the auction, which coincides with Trafalgar Day, the anniversary of the battle 204 years ago.
Auctioneer Charles Miller of Charles Miller Ltd said he was delighted with the price the flag achieved.
"I am absolutely lost for words, but what a victory," he said. "This demonstrates that this is a unique and charismatic artefact linked to both Nelson's greatest triumph and the greatest naval battle of all time - the Battle of Trafalgar, which took place exactly 204 years today."
Mr Miller had described the flag, marked by shot and still bearing a faint scent of gunpowder, as extremely evocative.
"Any artefact from Trafalgar is significant, but the national emblem, battle-scarred to boot, is going to be in the next league," he said.
On October 21, 1805, 27 British ships under Admiral Lord Nelson's command squared up to 33 French and Spanish vessels west of Cape Trafalgar, on the southwest coast of Spain. Nelson's forces sank 22 enemy ships without losing one of his own.
The victory confirmed Britain's naval supremacy and ended Napoleon Bonaparte's hopes of invading the British isles.
The flag flew above HMS Spartiate in the sea battle. Its 540 crew had stitched it together from 31 panels. After the conflict, they presented it to their Lieutenant, James Clephan, in recognition of his bravery.
The flag was put up for sale by one of his descendants, who lives in Australia.

Magazine signed by John Lennon sells for $12,713

A 1966 magazine signed by John Lennon containing his remark that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus has sold for $12,713.

An surgeon at New York's Mount Sinai Medical Centre had the winning bid Thursday in a 17-day online auction run by RR Auction of Amherst, N.H.

Lennon signed "John C. Lennon" above his photo in the September 1966 "Datebook," even though his middle initial is W. for Winston.

In the magazine, Lennon said: "Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue about that; I'm right and I will be proved right. We're more popular than Jesus now. I don't know which will go first — rock 'n' roll or Christianity."

His comment provoked much anti-Beatle sentiment in the United States, where some people burned their Beatle records.

Japanese PM’s 80s pop tune hot on net auction

A single released by Japan’s future prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, two decades ago has sparked a bidding war amongst fans at an auction site.

His pop ballad single, entitled “Take Heart - Fly, Dove of Peace,” was said to have fetched around 35,000 yen (230 pounds).

Teruaki Asanuma, the producer of the 1988 record, expressed his surprise when the bidding started at 1,000 yen.

“I never imagined that there would be a day when this tune would come into the spotlight,” The Telegraph quoted Asanuma as telling Japanese tabloid Kyodo News.

Dentist Asanuma also revealed that Hatoyama, who will be sworn in as prime minister on September 16, initially wanted to sing a traditional Japanese tune but he suggested a lighter pop style, in keeping with Hatoyama’s “urban flair”. (ANI)