What is the most famous map in English literature: the pirate map in Peter Pan? How about Tolkein’s map of Middle-earth in The Lord of the Rings, a highlight of the forthcoming exhibition on the author in Oxford? I’ve always loved EH Shepard’s map of the River, the Wild Wood and Toad Hall in Wind in The Willows. Apparently, though, it is Shepard’s other masterpiece, the map of Hundred Acre Wood in Winnie-the-Pooh, which crowns them all.

The market is about to test this theory as the original 1926 sketch comes up for auction in early July with an estimate that stretches to £150,000. That may sound a lot until you consider that an original Shepard drawing depicting Pooh and his friends playing Pooh sticks sold for £314,500 four years ago – a record for any book illustration sold at auction.

These entrancing pictorial maps are a delight to any child – and adult come to that – even more so now than in times past when you look at the price the Hundred Acre Wood map achieved when it first came to auction exactly 50 years ago: £650. Even with inflation, that would come nowhere near the £150,000 mooted now.

You can feast your eyes on more pictorial maps at the unique London Map Fair this weekend near the Albert Hall, where the event is making a special feature of them.

Before the days of Netflix, Amazon Prime and multi-channel TV, the Saturday night viewing choice was restricted to three, then four channels: BBC1, BBC2, ITV and, later, Channel 4. In the golden days of TV light entertainment, the 1970s, the airwaves were dominated by Michael Parkinson, Morecambe & Wise and The Two Ronnies, my own personal favourite.

So it was with some interest that I discovered that Ronnie Barker’s handwritten script to the comedy duo’s most famous sketch, Four Candles, is coming up for auction.

First aired in 1976, it was voted the best ever Two Ronnies sketch, going down in comedy folklore as the ultimate example of the pair’s talent.

Barker famously wrote the sketch under the pseudonym Gerald Wiley to test whether the programme’s producers thought the work good enough for airing, a practice he adopted often.

It is thought that he later donated the script – actually titled Annie Finkhouse – to a charity auction, which is how it eventually surfaced on the Antiques Roadshow last year.

The estimate is £40,000, but I could see it making considerably over that sum if the sale is marketed well enough.

The sketch was so iconic that four candles were lit in tribute at each of Barker and Corbett’s funerals.

Mass digital entertainment may have diluted the power of acts like the Two Ronnies these days, but at lest you can still see the sketch on YouTube.

The announcement of an auction of more than 2000 postcards depicting Grimsby in its Victorian heyday brings into sharp focus the importance of photography as a collecting medium.

They come from a collection of 16,000 postcards amassed by the late David Robinson, editor of Lincolnshire Life and an historian, who died last year aged 89.

Each one is an historical document in its own right, packed with detail about how our forebears lived their lives and, from a market point of view, highly saleable because of their appeal to so many different people, from those who live in the area to local historians and collectors of vernacular photography.

As inexpensive items, they also act as one of the gateway collectables that trigger the desire to explore other fields of collecting, from grander, more expensive photographs to fine art in the form of prints, drawings and, eventually, paintings as individuals become more confident in their knowledge and so happier to spend larger sums.

The big story behind the Grimsby scenes is just how different the town is today. Gone are the fishing fleets crowding the docks; gone too are the trams gliding up Victoria Street. And, of course, the shops, clothes and buildings are largely changed too. I could sit and look at these for hours.

Another auction record has fallen in the past week or so after Christie’s brought the hammer down on $800 million (£590m) worth of art from a single collection. No surprise that the collection belonged to Peggy and David Rockefeller, a family that has been a cornerstone of the art market ever since wealthy US industrialists first turned their attention to culture towards the end of the 19th century.

To put in context just how big this sale was, the previous record for a single-owner collection was set by the Yves St Laurent Collection, also offered by Christie’s, which totalled $484m (£357m) in Paris in 2009.

The three-day Rockefeller sale ended on May 10 with a flourish, when a Picasso painting once owned by the writer Gertrude Stein took $115m (£85m) by itself.

By that time bidders had had the chance to compete for works by Monet ($84m/£62m) and Matisse ($80.8m/£59.7m) – a new record for the artist – while even those without access to millions could compete for modestly priced items, such as cufflinks.

All of the 893 lots offered live sold, with another 600 sold online.

Peggy Rockefeller died in 1996 and David in 2017, and the sale was staged by their son David Jr who pledged the proceeds to charity.

Great art, great wealth, a spectacular occasion and, at the end of it all, a massive boost to worthy causes; it doesn’t get better than that.