First part of WW2 photo archive sells for £6,000 at Halls Fine Art
The first part of a fascinating archive of Second World War press photography has sold for £6,000 at a Shropshire fine art auction house last week.
Every lot from the archive entered in Halls Fine Art’s militaria, naval and aviation auction in Shrewsbury sold. Top price of £950 went to a collection of 126 black and white photographs of the D-Day and Normandy landings, with Allied incursions into France from June - August 1944.
The second half of the archive will be going under the hammer at the company’s next militaria auction in February next year. Owned by a Shropshire vendor, the archive was originally based in the West Midlands.
“The archive has been arranged thematically, depicting all three branches of the British military alongside overseas Allied and Axis powers and daily life during the war,” she explained. “It even includes the Nuremburg trials of Nazy war criminals in 1945-’46.
“As prices achieved for the first half of this fascinating archive have exceeded my expectations, I am looking to seeing how much interest the remaining lots generate in February next year.”
A collection of flintlock pistols from the 18th and 19th centuries, consigned by a Shropshire collector sold for more than £4,750. Top price in the collection was £460 for a pair of early 19th century English flintlock boxlock pocket pistols by Stevens of London.
A collection of Indian Army badges, buttons and titles from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, mounted on three boards, was secured by a military academic for £1,300. The collection belonged to Lieutenant-Colonel W. C. Kirkwood, 97th Deccan Infantry (late 4th Infantry Hyderabad Contingent).
An interesting archive of 33 documents and correspondence, including letters and reports, principally covering the period 1809-‘62, but with one dating to 1695, is going home to the Royal Naval College for £600.
The varied collection included letters from and to many notable high-ranking Royal Navy officers who became administrators at the Royal Naval Asylum and Royal Navy Hospital Greenwich, London.
A spokesperson said the Royal Naval College was delighted to add the documents to its growing collection related to the early phase of the building’s use as Greenwich Hospital. The college plans to use the papers to form future displays.
“Exceptionally rare” maps of India added to the value of a First World War Mesopotamian Campaign collection relating to Captain Samuel Charles Robert Lane Clarke of the Wiltshire Regiment with the 13th (Western) Division, which sold for £950. The collection was consigned by a family descendant.
A comprehensive album documenting the career of Major-General Neil McMicking, C.B, C.B.E., D.S.O., M.C (1894 - 1963) from the First World War to the Second World War and his death in 1963 sold for £1,150
Eclipsing its pre-sale estimate, an oil portrait of Field Marshal Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig, by British artist Mavis Bottle, after James Guthrie's portrait conceived in 1921, sold for £1,150. The painting was consigned by a seller in the Scottish Highlands following an email valuation by Caroline.
German Third Reich militaria was also in demand with a Waffen-SS Deutschland cuff title making £1,150, a post-war copy of an army officer's dagger selling for £800 and a DLV / NSFK flying dagger making £750.
Other leading prices included £1,050 for a good quality William Mills 'improved' over-and-under percussion pistol, circa 1830-35, £900 for arare Maynard Arms Company 1st Model .50 calibre percussion breech-loading carbine, as used by the US Military during the Civil War and £500 for an early 19th century Brown Bess style flintlock musket.
