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Comic Cuts, Whizzer & Chips, Valiant, Tiger, Eagle and The Dandy; and to top them all, of course, The Beano, which at its height enjoyed sales of close to 2 million copies a week. The comics of our youth are part of the defining culture of post-war Britain until the dawn of the internet. So you can imagine the excitement when it was recently announced that a copy of the first ever Beano annual, from 1940 – although released in 1939 – was coming up for auction.
The annual from Dundee publishers DC Thomson set the tone for the decades to come, with larger than life characters getting into various scrapes amid an anarchic landscape.
None of the most famous characters appeared in the first weekly edition of The Beano, published in July 1938, except for Lord Snooty and his pals. Dennis the Menace and Gnasher did not appear until 1952, Minnie the Minx two years later and The Bash Street Kids a few months after that. Except for Dennis, all were created by the great Leo Baxendale, who died only last year, aged 86.
The Beano annual, expected to fetch £1200-1500, actually sold for £2700. I would be fascinated to see what an original Baxendale cartoon strip featuring Plug, Smiffy or Minnie would make today.
On August 29 we are honoured to be selling a collection of gilt Easter eggs, filled with surprises, by the late great Stuart Devlin.
An Australian by birth, Devlin designed that nation’s first decimal coinage in the mid 1960s, as well as creating the medals for Australia’s new honours system a decade later.
By that time he had already made a considerable name for himself across several continents and had undertaken a travel scholarship at the Royal College of Art in London from 1958 to 1960, having gained the highest marks ever studying gold and silversmithing at Melbourne Technical College.
Opening a workshop in Clerkenwell, London (followed by several others), Devlin gave employment to craftsmen and women while he developed new designs, techniques and ideas, creating wonders in jewellery, cutlery, candlesticks and other homewares, as well as trophies, clocks and masterpieces like his range of Christmas boxes and decorative eggs, each containing a bejewelled surprise and still, astonishingly, valued at only a few hundred pounds each.
I was amazed to discover that this genius, who sadly passed away in Chichester on April 12, had designed coins and medals for no fewer than 36 countries in his time.
As a worthy Royal Warrant holder, he became Prime Warden of the Goldsmith’s Company from 1996-97.
As I said at the top of the piece, it is an honour to be marking his passing by celebrating the man’s work in this way.
As I write this, the weather doesn’t look terribly promising for what is being billed as the best Perseid meteor shower in decades tonight. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the clouds will part in time for what is often an exciting spectacle, especially as a new Moon accompanies it, which means that there is very little risk of it outshining the meteors, which can appear at a rate of up to 100 an hour as they streak across Earth’s atmosphere.
Actually, it is the Earth that passes through what is effectively a patch of rubble in space, creating this amazing natural phenomenon each year, but for me, it also acts as a reminder of one of the fastest growing collectible disciplines on the planet: photographs and ephemera linked to the Space programme.
Auction prices have been climbing steadily as the 50th anniversary of the first man on the Moon approaches. Anything to do with NASA missions, from Mercury and Gemini through to the Apollo programmes in the US, culminating in Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin’s famous Apollo 11 mission, come at the top of the list as collectors anticipate July 20 next year, half a century on from the game-changing Moon landing and that Giant Step.
Personally, I would like to have a copy of the 1965 photo Earthrise, the first vision of the Earth as it appeared from behind the Moon, as taken by Bill Anders on December 24, 1968 during the Apollo 8 mission. Examples of that have already made five figures at auction.
Apparently more than six million workers are worried that they could be replaced by robots in the next decade. Should I be worried? After all, fine art and antique auctions have been at the cutting edge of online development over the past 15 years and we can now offer live online and timed auctions, as well as hybrid auctions, to buyers from all over the world from our Fernhurst saleroom these days.
Time was when most bidders would be in the room, with a few on the phone and the odd commission bid, and you’d be lucky to have a range of bidders from the local area, a bit further afield, across the nation and possibly from one or two other countries. Now, thanks to the internet and the focus of technology on the bidding process, bidders from 50 countries is not unknown for a single sale at our auction room on the Surrey/Sussex border.
But replacing the auctioneer with a robot is another issue altogether. People talk about Artificial Intelligence taking over, but, as far as I can see, we’re no closer to real ‘AI’ than we were twenty years ago. You need years of experience and skill to read a room and tickle bids from someone at the other end of a fibre optic cable. Psychology, a sense of theatre and a bit of human nature is what does the trick, not a microchip… and that’s the way it will always be if you want the system to work!
It never ceases to amaze me how what are, frankly, in my opinion a series of unattractive daubs flung together in the name of Contemporary art can make millions at auction when highly accomplished and rather beautiful Victorian landscapes can be had for buttons.
I suppose that fashions change and, with them, tastes. Don’t get me wrong, I think a great deal of Modern and Contemporary art has a lot to offer, but it is also rife with mountebanks. However, the flipside of what has been a rather subdued market for late Victorian and Edwardian painting is that you can pick up stunning art for very little indeed.
Just browsing through one of the online auction platforms the other day, I worked out that, with a fair wind behind me, I could fill a whole wall with stunning Victorian and Edwardian watercolours for less than £2000. Some of the pictures looked a bit tired, but closer inspection revealed that they simply needed a new mount and frame, and at these prices this was very much a realistic option.
I have no idea whether art like this will enjoy a renaissance in years to come – although it certainly deserves to – but those cherry picking now will be in the best position to capitalise if it does. And if prices remain in the doldrums, well they will have a fantastic selection of art gracing their walls, which they will never tire of.
As Francesco Molinari lifted the famous claret jog at Carnoustie to celebrate his victory at The Open – the first golf major win for an Italian – I recalled once again that this is a sport that hovers close to the top of the collecting table in terms of popularity and values when it comes to memorabilia.
Hickory clubs, rare golf balls and, of course, famous trophies all feature among the top prices at auction, one of the most memorable being Arnold Palmer’s Masters trophy, a rather stunning piece of silverware modelled as a miniature version of the Augusta clubhouse, which went for $444,000 at the appropriately named Green Jacket Auctions in 2016.
While British collectors are very active, the real centre for this field is the US, so it was no surprise when one of the oldest clubs known, a square-toed iron dating to the 1600s, sold from a leading collection for $151,000 at Sotheby’s in New York in 2007. It was designed for use on sandy or stony ground and is one of only half a dozen surviving clubs of a similar age.
Rory McIlroy’s 2014 Open Championship golf ball sold for $52,000 – also at Green Jacket Auctions – beaten only by a signed vintage Bobby Jones ball, which made nearly $56,000 in 2011.
For rare and ancient, the prize for a golf ball goes to an 18th century feathery that took £24,000 in 2004, selling to Jamie Ortiz-Patigos, owner of the Valderama course. The ball was the first ever made by Allan Robertson, one of the best-known early promoters of the game.
This week I want to draw attention to an auction taking place on Saturday (July 21) in aid of a special cause. Many of you will remember the hugely talented and popular Henry Hope-Frost – ‘Mr Fever’ – one of the best-loved figures in motorsport journalism and commentating, who tragically lost his life in a motorcycle accident in Grayswood in March this year while returning home from Goodwood. He was just 47.
I’m pleased to say that friends and supporters have rallied round to put together an auction of excusive motorsport memorabilia in support of Henry’s family, which will take place at Silverstone Auctions during the Silverstone Class Event.
Among the highlights are five sets of overalls donated by Formula One teams, including a set worn by Lewis Hamilton at the 2017 Russian Grand Prix, and a set of Williams overalls in the special livery used by Felipe Massa at the 2016 Brazilian Grand Prix. McLaren have even donated a set of overalls dating back to 1998 that were worn on several occasions by David Coulthard.
Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari has donated a signed pair of his driving gloves, and there are a lot of other goodies to bid on too. It’s heartening to see the esteem in which Henry is still held. Visit www.silverstoneauctions.com
Whisky is proving to be one of the great modern collectables, attracting a young buying base as well as long-term, well-heeled enthusiasts. But before you dip your toe in the ‘water of life’ – the word whisky comes from the gaelic ‘usquebaugh’ with that meaning – it’s a good idea to develop a little understanding about how the market works.
For a start there are really two whisky markets: one for rare bottles left over from defunct distilleries or age-old bottlings; the other for new limited edition bottlings of rare casks put aside for special occasions some time ago.
To give you an idea of what these can make, a Hong Kong bidder has just beaten off competition from dozens of rivals to win a bottle of Bowmore 1966 Samaroli Bouquet at £50,000. It was first bottled 18 years after distillation in 1984 and only 720 bottles have ever been produced.
Check out its ranking among the 1000 best whiskies of all time on Whiskybase.com and you will find it at… Number One, with a rating of 96.49 out of 100.
Whether you are going to buy for investment or simply for drinking, it pays to start with the great whisky guru, Charles Maclean’s, Whisky Wheel (see whiskymax.co.uk) and to follow some of the experts, like Dave Broom (@davebroomwhisky) and Neil Ridley (@NeilDram).
Choices, choices. Will you be watching the World Cup Final or the Wimbledon Men’s Final on July 15? The solution is clearly two TVs. As I write this, England are still in with a chance, but as of tonight, who knows? Obviously, if they make the final (we can but dream at this stage) households split between their football and tennis loyalties are likely to see more pressure to watch the former, especially now Andy Murray is no longer in the running at Wimbledon.
When it comes to sporting memorabilia, there is no competition, however. Football memorabilia, especially World Cup Winners medals, leave just about everything else standing. In 2016 Pele’s 1970 World Cup Winners medal took £280,000, setting a new record – in fact the Pele collection of football memorabilia sold for a total of £3.6m at the time.
By contrast, iconic tennis memorabilia can be had for relatively modest sums. Bjorn Borg’s racquet from the 1981 Wimbledon Final sold for as little as $18,500 in 2007, while Fred Perry’s racquet from the 1934 Wimbledon Final took £23,000 in 1997.
A London Underground poster from 1933 promoting the championship sold for £25,000 in 2012, but the top price to date is the $71,500 paid in 1992 for Bill Tilden’s 1920 Men’s Singles trophy for Wimbledon. Mind you, that’s close to $1m in today’s values.
