Collecting Guides

An image of witch balls

What are witch balls, and how can you buy them?

An illustration by Polly Fearne showing bidders in a salesroom

Collecting Guides

A beginners guide to buying at auction

Peter Henry Emerson, from ‘Life and Landscape on the Norfolk Broads’, 1886, est £70,000–£90,000 in Sotheby’s Classic Travel Photographs sale.

Collecting Guides

How to buy and collect antique photographs

An elegant tea party scene in a Georgian living room

Vintage and antique teapot guide: how to collect teapots and the history of tea drinking in Britain

Multi-gem set pendant ‘Regard’ necklace sold for £2,500 at Lyon & Turnbull.

How to buy and collect antique acrostic jewellery

Antique silver napkin rings on white frilly napkins

Collecting Guides

Antique napkin rings: how to collect and where to buy

A Mauchline tartanware photo album c1890 made £475 at Lyon & Turnbull in 2019

Luke Honey’s Cabinet of Curiosities: tartanware

‘Old London Bridge’ Charles Osborne-patented corkscrew, Victorian (sold for £40,000 in November 2014).

Antique corkscrews: how to collect and where to buy

A vast collection of antique copper jelly moulds.

Antique jelly moulds: how to collect and where to buy

A travel agent’s model by Bassett-Lowke for RMS Queen Mary c1960, sold by Charles Miller Ltd for £1,400.

Antique model ships: how to collect and where to buy

An embroidered table cloth on a dining table

How to buy embroidered table linen

Cliche garland, £500, Fileman Antiques.

Antique glass paperweights: how to collect and where to buy

Rectangular stool by Robert Thompson c1940, £1,800, Holly Johnson Antiques.

How to buy Mouseman furniture and the history of his designs

An antiques dealer pointing at a glass display case full of Martin Brothers birds

The history of Martin Brothers pottery birds

A brightly coloured Pollock's toy theatre

The history of antique toy theatres