2025: A Year in Review

The past year has seen a record volume of sales through our doors, building on the remarkable successes of recent times for Dominic Winter Auctioneers. All of our major specialist departments including books, manuscripts, maps, photographs and historical documents, fine art, antiques, medals and militaria unearthed major items of historical, literary and aesthetic importance attracting buyers from around the world, evidence that in the face of global economic and political turmoil the auction market has offered a welcome haven for collectors and investors alike. As evidence of this, we concluded the year with a new house record for Albert Einstein's violin (see below). What follows is a look back over a selection of the year’s highlights, followed by a brief taster of what will be in store in 2026. For a more detailed look at the year's results in manuscripts, historical documents and association items, as well as photography, medals and militaria go to the additional surveys also published on the news page of our website.

Books and Manuscripts Ancient and Modern

At the core of our activity at Dominic Winter Auctioneers are our key specialist sales of rare books, manuscripts and maps, results for which reflected the continuing market confidence in this sector, especially amongst the rarest and most distinctive.

Our first sale of the year included a 1525 first collected edition of the works of the Greek physician and founding father of medicine Hippocrates, an excellent copy which surpassed its pre-sale estimate of £10,000-15,000 to reach £20,000, selling to an American client. In April a copy of the so-called Great Bible of 1540, the first Authorized Version of the Bible in English, translated by Miles Coverdale and with Thomas Cranmer’s prologue, issued under the auspices of King Henry VIII flew past its auction estimate of £2000-3000, to sell at £16,000 to an English private collector.

Manuscripts of all subjects and periods always receive particular attention, given their unique status. Special mention should be made of early manuscript cookery receipt books which are of interest for the history of culinary styles across the classes. The stand-out example for 2025 was a manuscript receipts folio begun by Alice Phelipps of Montacute, Somerset in 1695, and then continued by her and her descendants throughout the 18th and early 19th centuries. Bound in vellum and with the names of the various contributors given at the front of the volume, it drew significant interest, selling for £13,000.

Standing out amongst the thousands of maps offered throughout the year was a beautifully elaborate and very rare world map by Nicolas van Geelkercken (active 1600-1656) entitled Orbis Terrarum Descriptio Duobis Planis Hemisphaeriis Comprehesa, published by Jan Jansson in Amsterdam around 1618. Despite some condition issues along the outer margins, this soared to a hammer price of £10,500 against its estimate of £4000-6000.

Amongst works of more recent vintage, two lots from our fine single-owner sale of the works of Beatrix Potter from the collection of Thomas and Greta Schuster, are worthy of mention. The first was a world record at auction for the 1901 privately printed edition of Peter Rabbit, the first appearance in print of this famous character beloved by generations of readers ever since. An immaculate copy bound in the original pale pink boards, estimated strongly at £40,000-60,000 (reflecting its fine condition), it sold to a private buyer for £60,000.

Second, and perhaps even more remarkable was the price achieved for two very small original watercolours on silk by Beatrix Potter of Peter’s cousin and brave best friend, Benjamin Bunny. Carrying an estimate of £8000-12,000 (having previously sold at Christie's South Kensington in 1996 for £11,000) they were keenly contested to £21,000 on the hammer.

In fact, the works of 20th century literary figures in first edition or in manuscript have long been the focus of book collectors with results showing how this sector continues to advance. Most notable was a substantial 1957 letter from J. R. R. Tolkien to an unknown female Lord of the Rings fan in which the author writes 'You might be amused to learn that there is actually a Sam Gamgee living in London. I had a rather puzzled letter from him. But I think he is happy now. So far no S. Gollum has turned up. That might be more awkward’. Written in Tolkien's distinctive and elegant hand, it reached £16,000 against an estimate of £7,000-10,000.

By far the most outstanding association item of the year was the extraordinary violin belonging to the Nobel-prize winning physicist, and household name, Albert Einstein. One of several vioilns known to have belonged to him, all of which he lovingly named 'Lina', this example came with an impeccable provenance from Einstein himself to fellow physicist Max von Laue, given to him shortly before Einstein fled to the United States in late 1932. When the hammer finally and dramatically came down, it not only represented a happy conclusion to six months of careful research and planning behind the scenes, but also broke the pre-sale estimate and auction house price record (over £1,000,000 with the premium!).

Fine Art & Antiques

Our thrice-yearly specialist sales of Fine Art and Select Antiques regularly bring out fine examples from the ancient world through the Italian Renaissance to 20^th century works of art, but the major theme this year was the surge in prices for fine examples of the British Arts & Crafts Movement.

Our Summer Fine Art sale included a small but highly important sketchbook by William De Morgan (1839-1917), the most innovative designer and ceramicist of the period. Measuring only 3 ½ inches square, we estimated the tiny volume at £2000-3000, but collectors and trade bidders thought differently, taking it all the way to £20,500. 

In November we recognized the attraction of the charming watercolour embroidery design Peasants and the Flowering Tree, created in 1903 by Charles Annesley Voysey (1857-1940), architect and designer of wallpapers and fabrics whose work has steadily gained in recognition over the past few decades. Having used the design for the front cover of the catalogue, and estimated at £3000-4000, it reached a highly satisfying £15,000 hammer price.

Continuing the theme was a late Fulham period Sunset and Moonlight Suite triple-lustre dish by William De Morgan, decorated by Charles Passenger, in fine condition and with an equally fine provenance of the eminent collector M. D. E. Stamm. This very dish is illustrated in William Gaunt and M. D. E. Clayton-Stamm's William De Morgan (London: Studio Vista, 1971), page 137. The dish sold for a world record hammer price of £34,000 against a £3000-5000 estimate.

One of three important ancient Egyptian antiquities included in the same auction from the estate of a collector, this Limestone Talatat Relief, Amarna Period, 18th Dynasty, circa 1350 BC (Provenance: Faustus Fine Art, London) lot sold for a hammer price of £54,000 against a £7000-10,000 estimate.

Textiles

The first of three Textile Sales in 2025 kicked off with its usual eclectic offering, but the highlight of the sale was a collection of textiles belonging to eccentric society hostess Lady Ottoline Morrell (1873-1938). This group of items came direct from Lady Ottoline's descendants, and included embroidered purses, clothing, painted boxes, sumptuous brocade cloths, a needlework panel depicting a phoenix worked by D.H Lawrence and his wife Frieda (hammer price £2,100), and a large, extraordinarily vibrant, floral needlework panel stitched by Lady Ottoline herself (hammer price £5,000).
 
Our November sale included a rare stumpwork collage picture of Charles I and Henrietta Maria, probably worked by a child, which was estimated at £1,000-1,500, but made £2,800, and a stunning Charles II beadwork panel which made £6,000 (estimate £3,000-5,000), pictured below.

Medals & Militaria

We have been fortunate this year to offer through our rooms a number of private collections of medals, arms and armour, and historic aviation archives. 

One of the most poignant examples was a Conspicuous Gallantry medal group awarded to Petty Officer Frederick Gibson for his bravery during the Gallipoli Landings — jumping overboard under heavy fire to ferry wounded back to safety. It made a notable £11,000 hammer price.

Another historically significant lot were the Crimean War service medals awarded to Private Anthony Wilder, 11th Hussars, one of the mere handful of survivors of the infamous Charge of the Light Brigade. This well-documented group, accompanied with original ephemera, sold for £5,800.

The market for aviation history continued to show its highly competitive aspect with the Arthur Gibson Concorde & Red Arrows photographic archive — a vast collection of some 50,000 negatives and transparencies — racing past its estimate to hammer at £32,000.

A Taste of Things to Come

We look forward to welcoming clients to our sales in 2026, for which we have already secured some highly attractive collections. We draw your attention to the private collection of British ornithological books with which we open our calendar on January 28th. This includes a remarkably fine set of John Gould's magnum opus Birds of Great Britain, published in five large folio volumes between 1862 and 1873, containing 367 exquisitely coloured plates of all the British species. Bound in an impressive contemporary uniform purple full morocco, this carries a pre-sale estimate of £30,000-40,000. This is followed by a section of musical manuscript material, the most notable item being William Walton's autograph score for Belshazzar's Feast, estimated at £20,000-30,000.

In March we offer the Delphine Stork Early Cookery collection, which includes rare editions from the 17th and 18th centuries, including A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen (1632), Marnette's The Perfect Cook (1656), Hannah Woolley, The Gentlewoman's Companion (1682), John Shirley's The Accomplished Lady's Rich Closet of Rarities (1691), John Collins, Salt and Fishery (1682), William Mead, The Queen's Closet Opened (1696), Mary Eales, Mrs Mary Eales's Receipts (1718), Mary Kettilby, A Collection of Above Three Hundred Receipts in Cookery, Physick and Surgery (1734), Lemery's, A Treatise of All Sorts of Foods (1745), Madam Johnson's, Present or Every Young Woman's Companion (1769), Elizabeth Cleland, A New and Easy Method of Cookery (1770), and many more.