We found 75789 price guide item(s) matching your search
There are 75789 lots that match your search criteria. Subscribe now to get instant access to the full price guide service.
Click here to subscribe- List
- Grid
-
75789 item(s)/page
Lot 136
A large pair of early 20th century Black Forest carved walnut and beech plaques, each with detailed carving depicting various game on a shaped wall mounting plinth bracket, each approx 79 x 42cm. CONDITION REPORT: There are minor losses in parts as you would expect with the age, a small section of one of the scrolling plaques missing, one of the roundels missing to the frame, and a few natural fine cracks to the wood.
Lot 108
A quantity of collectors' items including a Lindstrom's Airways tinplate bagatelle game, height 61cm, some locomotive interest items comprising no.4472 Flying Scotsman, a long playing record, a similar record, a Super 8 reel on "The Flying Scotsman Runs Again" and an illustrated guide to classic British locomotives, also a medal issued in 1897 to celebrate the reign of Queen Victoria, a copy of the Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling etc.
Lot 90
THE PROPERTY OF A EUROPEAN NOBLEMAN A FINE GERMAN HUNTING TROUSSE (WEIDBESTECK), SECOND QUARTER OF THE 18TH CENTURY comprising cleaver with heavy single-edged chopping blade, iron hilt chiselled in low relief, comprising a pair of straight quillons decorated with large game, recurved terminals formed as monsterheads, ring-guard decorated on the lower face with a woodland scene involving a boar set upon by a pair of hounds and, on the upper face, a further woodland scene involving a stag set upon by three hounds, integral grip decorated on the inside with a stag hunting scene en suite with the ring and the outer with a hunter in contemporary dress at the base, a panel of engraved silver in the middle on each face, and pommel formed as a maned lionshead with brass tongue, in its fabric-covered wooden scabbard (light wear, shrinkage, now a poor fit) encased in pierced iron, the inner face with two loops for suspension, the outer decorated with a vertical arrangement of stag and boar hunting woodland scenes involving hunters in contemporary dress, plain iron locket (two rivets missing, loose), and complete with its accompanying pieces comprising bodkin with file, three knives of differing length and a fork, each with grip inlaid with an engraved silver panel front and back and chiselled iron lionshead pommel en suite with the cleaver, and remaining in good untouched condition throughout 35.0 cm; 13 3/4 in cleaver blade A related example formerly in the Meyrick Collection at Goodrich Court, Herefordshire is illustrated Skelton 1854, plate II, figs. 10 and 11. Another, formerly in the collection of Prince Carl of Prussia, is illustrated Hiltl 1876 cat. no. 516.
Lot 448
A 10 BORE PERCUSSION SPORTING GUN BY WILLIAM POWELL, BIRMINGHAM PROOF MARKS, CIRCA 1860 with browned twist sighted barrel engraved with scrolls ahead of the breech, engraved breech inlaid with two platinum lines, platinum plug, scroll-engraved case-hardened tang extending over the grip, signed scroll-engraved flush-fitting back-action lock decorated with a wisp of snipe, figured walnut half-stock, chequered grip, leather-covered cheek-piece, engraved blued iron mounts comprising trigger-guard decorated with a game vignette, butt-plate, ramrod-pipe, German silver fore-end cap, vacant escutcheon and barrel bolt escutcheons, and brass-tipped ramrod, perhaps the original (refinished throughout) 79.0 cm; 31 1/8 in barrel
Lot 478
GORDON, W.J. Our Country's Butterflies and Moths and How To Know Them. Ill. H. Lynn. Simpkin Marshall, frontis det. 33 plates pict. bds. tog.with PEACOCK, E.H. A Game-Book for Burma and Adjoining Territory, Witherby, 1933. folding map 4to. 25 plts. cl. bds. Plus CARTER, Harry, Orlando Jewitt, OUP. 1962, slim 8vo. glt. cl. 3
Lot 190
A BOHEMIAN RUBY FLASHED GLASS GOBLET AND COVER, THE FLARED BOWL ENGRAVED WITH OVAL PANELS OF DOGS AND GAME, 26CM H, CIRCA 1850 (BOWL BROKEN AND RESTUCK), A BOHEMIAN MAUVE FLASHED SPA GLASS, A RUBY FLASHED GLASS PICKLE JAR AND STOPPER AND A 19TH CENTURY WHITE OVERLAY CRANBERRY GLASS SCENT BOTTLE AND STOPPER (RIM CHIPPED)
Lot 566
*The Unique and Important Great War Anglo-American Group of 15 to Colonel Harold Fowler, Commanding Officer of the 17th ‘Aero’ Squadron, USAAS, late Royal Flying Corps and Royal Artillery, who was one of the founding figures of the USAAS and US Liaison Officer with British Forces; wounded four times and shot down seven times as a pilot during WWI, he went on to receive no fewer than 11 separate Orders and decorations for gallantry or distinguished service comprising: U.S.A., Distinguished Service Medal, officially numbered (1680), roll confirms; U.S.A., Purple Heart, in gilt metal and enamels (123917); The Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George, Companion’s breast badge, in silver-gilt and enamels; Distinguished Service Order, GVR, in silver-gilt and enamels; Military Cross, GVR, unnamed as issued; 1914-15 Star (2. Lieut. H. Fowler. R.F.A.); British War Medal, this erased and unnamed; Victory Medal (Capt. H. Fowler.); Belgium, Order of the Crown, Knight’s breast badge in gilt metal and enamels; France, Médaille Militaire, in silver and enamels, in original case of issue; France, Croix de Guerre, 1914-1918, with bronze star, in original case of issue; France, War Medal, 1914-1918; Italy, Al Valore Militare, in bronze, believed to be of French manufacture; Romania, Virtute Militara, in silver; Russia, Order of St Anne, Military Division, Third Class breast badge, French-made, in silver, gilt and enamels, several medals with brooch-pins removed having previously been displayed in a frame, generally good very fine (17). M.C.: London Gazette, 18.07.1917: ‘For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. He has done invaluable service in co-operating with the artillery. On one occasion he descended to 200 feet, and turned our guns on to parties of hostile troops. During the advance he was able to furnish much valuable information.’ U.S.A. Distinguished Service Medal, 09.07.1918: ‘for exceptionally meritorious and distinguished services to the Government of the United States, in a duty of great responsibility during World War I. Colonel Fowler rendered notable aid in planning the movements of the night bombing squads of the American Air Service. Later, appointed Air Service Commander of the 3rd Army, he assisted largely in the joint training of air and ground troops, at all times handling his troops well and establishing liaison between the air and ground forces.’ Colonel Harold Fowler (1886-1957) was born in Liverpool in 1886 to Anderson and Emily Fowler, of Ireland and England respectively, however he and his parents returned to New York during his early childhood. He was educated at Columbia University, where he was a popular student, and of the Varsity Football team. After working for a time on the New York Stock Exchange he was invited by Walter Hines Page, the US Ambassador to Great Britain, to become his personal Secretary. This appears to coincide with his recruitment into the U.S. Secret service, reputedly at the request of President Theodore Roosevelt in 1906. Upon the arrival of war in late 1914, he applied and was approved for special dispensation to join the British Army. In ‘The Life and Letters of Walter Hines Page’, his former colleague reported that he had been working as a sniper ‘in command of a three-inch sniping gun just back of the trenches’. In this vein, and as recorded in the book ‘Harold Fowler 1886-1957: A Remembrance’ by his wife Thyrza Fowler, he was later awarded the D.S.O. for singlehandedly creeping out into No Man’s Land to silence a troublesome German battery. Promoted to Lieutenant on 1 January 1916, he was seconded to the Royal Flying Corps for training as an Observer, being confirmed as a Flying Officer (Observer) on 19 April 1916. He served with 26 Squadron until November that year, before qualifying as a full Pilot, gaining his ‘Wings’ on 28 July 1917. He was promoted to Temporary Captain whilst with 2 Squadron, and was transferred as Flight Commander to 12 Squadron, equipped with BE2c’s. During this time Fowler, with his Observer Lt F E Brown, was credited with sending a Halberstadt Scout down in flames on 25 February 1917, and soon after engaged a German Albatros in aerial combat, but this ended in a stalemate. Soon after, he was awarded his M.C., along with his D.S.O. and C.M.G., all on one occasion, by King George V, whom he had met once prior to the war with Ambassador Page. Once the U.S.A. had joined the war on 6 April 1917, Fowler was granted permission to resign, with the rank of Honorary Lieutenant, and his experience was in much demand in the USAAS. He was wounded in action several times, at least twice severely, and was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal. According to a report in Time Magazine, he reputedly flew an aircraft under the Arc de Triomphe in Paris as the result of a bet made in the Café Montmartre on Armistice Night amongst French and American aces. In total, for his official and unofficial work as USAAS Liaison Officer to the RFC, he was awarded what is believed to be a unique combination of British, American, and other international awards and decorations. Judging by the style of manufacture of both his Russian Order of St Anne and Italian Al Valore Militare, it appears these awards were made during this same period. After the war, he alternated between banking work with the firm White, Weld & Co. and his secret work. In his personal life, he was a keen sportsman, big-game hunter and skilled equestrian, and he twice rode as Gentleman Rider in the Grand National at Aintree, each time on his own horse. In 1927, on Pop Ahead, and again in 1928 on Scotch Eagle, the assessments of contemporaneous pundits were sadly correct as, despite bold attempts, his horses failed to complete this most difficult of Steeple Chase courses. In the Second World War Fowler volunteered to interview commercial pilots in New York being considered for the Royal Canadian Air Force, and in 1941, he was granted an official role, being sent to Montreal and then to London. He reputedly was on board a bomber on the first raid on Berlin, presumably for intelligence reasons, and in 1942 he was given the honorary rank of Group Captain in his role as part of the Staff of the Commander of the RCAF. Later that year he was made a Colonel in the USAAF, was made Air Attaché to the US Embassy in London in 1942, and also gave intelligence advice regarding the North Africa and D-Day landings. He was involved in a plane crash in North Africa, and severely wounded with a broken right fibula, chipped ankle, dislocated shoulder and various severe cuts, but he still managed to drag both himself and the unconscious pilot from the burning wreckage. He returned home soon after D-Day, but had one final clandestine mission of two weeks’ duration. After the War he returned to ‘business’ and no doubt other clandestine work in New York before retiring with his wife to Palm Beach, Florida, where he died on 17 January, 1957. Fowler was a life-long friend of the celebrated author (and Great War spy) W. Somerset Maugham, who wrote that he was ‘a character out of our times… ...like one of those great adventurers of the reign of Elizabeth I. If he had been alive then he would have been a buddy of Drake and Raleigh… ...he had, of course, the courage of the devil.” Offered with a silver-framed and glazed portrait, c. 1942-4, a framed and glazed ‘Society of the Four Arts’ certificate and an original hardback copy of ‘Harold Fowler 1886-1957 : A Remembrance’, by Thyrza Fowler, signed by the author. See also following lot.
Lot 572
*The Second World War ‘Escaper’s’ K.C.V.O., O.B.E., M.C. & Bar Group of Ten awarded to Lieutenant-General Sir Chandos Blair, Queen’s Own Highlanders, G.O.C. Scotland and Governor of Edinburgh Castle, late C.O. of the 4th Battalion King’s African Rifles, and formerly of the 2nd and 7th Battalions Seaforth Highlanders. Captured during the Seaforths’ hard-fought rearguard action at St Valéry in June 1940, and widely reputed to have become the very first army officer to successfully escape and return home from a German Prisoner-of-War camp, he was later called upon to deliver the Queen’s Message and to handle the delicate negotiations involved in getting overturned the death sentence imposed on the British national Dennis Hills, who was due for execution by firing squad at the orders of President Idi Amin of Uganda (whom Blair had known many years before as an N.C.O. in the King’s African Rifles), comprising: The Royal Victorian Order, Second Class Knight Commander’s Set of Insignia by Collingwood, in silver, gilt and enamels, neck badge and breast star both numbered (1110) to reverse, in fitted case of issue; The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (Military Division), Officer’s breast badge, in silver-gilt, in case of issue; Military Cross, reverse engraved ‘1941’, with second award bar upon ribbon, engraved ‘1944’; 1939-1945 Star, France and Germany Star, Defence Medal, 1939-1945 War Medal, all unnamed as issued; General Service Medal, 1962-2007, single clasp, Radfan (Brig. C. Blair. O.B.E. M.C. Staff.); Silver Jubilee 1977; group swing-mounted on bar with reverse brooch pin, very fine and in original card box; together with Sir Chandos’s original commission document and K.C.V.O. Warrant (lot). K.C.V.O.: 25 October, 1972 (on relinquishing appointment as Defence Services Secretary); O.B.E.: London Gazette, 1 January 1962; M.C.: London Gazette, 30 September 1941: ‘for distinguished services in the field’;; Bar to M.C.: London Gazette, 19 October 1944, recommendation reads as follows: ‘Major Chandos Blair was in command of the advanced guard on Le Valtru on 28 June 44. Just short of the objective the left hand platoon was temporarily pinned by the fire by the enemy from a post some 400 yds away. Major Blair personally cleared the house which commanded the enemy post. Regardless of the heavy fire he moved about amongst his platoons, explaining his plan and by his disregard of enemy fire helped his men to disregard it also. He was almost the first man to reach the objective. Quickly rallying the assaulting troops he led them personally forward to the main objective on Le Valtru crossroads. This he cleared himself personally but the company was hampered by snipers from a nearby orchard. Again disregarding this fire he cleared the orchard. Throughout the attack on Le Valtru he was always to be found where fire was heaviest. His enthusiasm was an inspiration to his men and his determination to go forward and attack dominated the battle. On 29 June when both the C.O. and 2.I.C. of the Battalion were wounded, Major Blair assumed command of the Battalion. There had been many casualties and mortar fire was both heavy and spasmodic, but Major Blair moved about without fear, encouraging his men and held them firm in their posts until relieved some 36 hours later. Throughout the whole period of operations from 26 June to 30 June, Major Blair showed complete disregard to his personal safety and was at all times and inspiration to his company and later on to his Battalion.’ Lieutenant-General Sir Chandos ‘Chan’ Blair was born on 22 February 1919, the son of Brigadier-General Arthur Blair (K.O.S.B.) and Elizabeth Mary Blair (née Hoskyns). He was educated at Aysgarth School, then at Harrow, where he was a keen golfer, and finally at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst where he received the Sword of Honour. Receiving his first commission as a Second-Lieutenant in ‘C’ Company of the 2nd Battalion Seaforth Highlanders on 26 January 1939, he soon after took part in the fighting in France in June 1940, and at the time when much of the B.E.F. was being evacuated from Dunkirk, the 51st (Highland) Division took part in a gallant but ultimately doomed battle against Rommel’s 7th Panzer Division at Le Tot near St Valery-en-Caux. Surrounded, outnumbered and desperately short of ammunition or supplies, on 12 June thousands of the division’s men were taken prisoner, including 2nd Lt Chandos Blair. After a 14-day, 220--mile march, a journey by barge from Hulst in Holland down the Rhine to Baden-Württemburg, and a 60-hour train journey he arrived first at Oflag VIIC at Laufen Castle, where he remained until 1 March 1941 when he was moved to Stalag XXID - comprised of numerous forts at Posen, in Poland. Feeling his capture with a sense of ‘disgrace’ and ‘dishonour’ as mentioned in his letters, it was here that he made his first attempt at escape with 4 others, escaping his cell by ladder into a deep surrounding moat, in which they were eventually caught, reputedly turned in by a German guard who had accepted their bribe nonetheless. After some 21 days of subsequent confinement, they began collecting equipment, civilian clothes and supplies once again. On 4 June he was sent with 300 others to Oflag VB at Biberach, in Southern Germany. En route, Blair and his immediate friends had lost ‘the toss’ to another group who took an opportunity to escape from the train, but were later captured. After arriving at Biberach, and realising that if he were ultimately to escape then he needed to do so quickly, he immediately set about monitoring the camp movements and routines, and making plans for an escape. Taking turns to toss two dice with his two friends, on this occasion his score won, and thus it was he who was successfully extricated by hiding in a small handcart which was carrying stacked wooden beds to a shed beyond the gates. At this point one of the Blair’s friends offered the German guard a cigarette, and in this moment of diversion Blair made his escape to the shed. Armed only with a packet knife, homemade compass, matches, chocolate and a tin of Horlicks tablets, he emerged that night and survived by hiding in the woods and fields by day, and moving only under the cover of darkness. He remarked that for the first mile beyond the wire his ‘feet hardly touched the ground’ and that he ‘thoroughly enjoyed being hunted like a wild animal’ during his escape. After just over a week he passed Singen and reached the Swiss border, having covered 75 miles, and as he recalled in his second letter home from the Berne Legation: ‘When I got into Switzerland I only knew I was near the frontier….when I was challenged by a man in German, I thought the game was up…but continuing the conversation in French I discovered that the was a Swiss policeman who had been looking for a burglar. I nearly embraced him there and then I was so excited.’ After a short stay at Berne, where he was issued with false passports and other necessary provisions, he and another evader - Wing Commander P.A. Gilchrist, R.A.F. - left for Gibraltar on 12 January 1942 via France and Spain. Arriving safely, Gilchrist was first extracted on 27 January 1942, with Blair following on 11 February, both leaving by Sunderland flying boat. For his escape; the first successful ‘home run’ back to Britain made by a British army officer from a German POW Camp, Blair was awarded the Military Cross. Returning home to army service, he later was present as a Major with the 7th Battalion Seaforth Highlanders shortly after the D-Day Landings, where the 15th Scottish Division took part in Operation Epsom and the heavy fighting against German SS Tanks at Le Valtru near Caen. For his bravery in commanding his company and indeed his Battalion once his senior officers were wounded between 26 and 30 June, he was awarded a second award bar for his Military Cross….PLEASE GO TO WWW.MORTONANDEDEN.COM FOR FULL FOOTNOTE
Loading...-
75789 item(s)/page