The UK has a thriving auction scene, with a diverse range of collectible pre-owned items to be found in salerooms up and down the country.
One such auction house, Fellows, in Birmingham, is one of the UK's oldest, and holds more than 100 sales a year. This month's include the Designer Collection auction, on 10 October – featuring an Hermes apple-green Swift Birkin 35 handbag (£6,500-£8,500) – and, on 25 October, a watch sale that includes a limited-edition Zenith Elite Vintage 1955 (£2,400-£3,400).
From the same era, a Rolex Submariner with a very rare 3-6-9 gloss dial fetched a world-record-breaking £192,000 at Bath's Gardiner Houlgate's last watch auction in May – and its 26 October sale offers a similar piece. This Rolex Submariner with Explorer dial – a model produced in very small numbers during the late 1950s and early 1960s – features a white Swiss dial with a very rare upper underline.
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At JS Fine Art in Banbury, there's a live online auction of pictures, silver and jewellery on 15 October. Lots include a John Anster Fitzgerald watercolour (£40,000-£60,000) and an early 19th-century Breguet open-faced pocket watch (£2,500-£3,500).
On 13 October, classic-car specialist H&H is holding an auction at the Imperial War Museum in Duxford. In the morning, look out for vintage motorcycles from the likes of Honda, Triumph and Norton, and, later in the day, vintage cars including a 1929 Rolls-Royce Phantom Allweather Tourer (£60,000-£80,000) alongside a number of Jaguar E-Type Roadsters.
For something a bit different, head to Anthony Cribb's sale of arms and armour on 4 October at Milton Hill House in Oxfordshire. Among an assortment of poignant war memorabilia, you'll find a fine silver and gilt-mounted Russian sword from the Tula Workshops (£10,000-£15,000).
Staying with that theme, Chiswick Auctions has a collection of Russian royal 18th and 19th-century glassware up for sale on 11 October. Those in the market for a historical artefact may like to bid for an engraved goblet (£500-£700) from 1770-90, commissioned for Catherine the Great and bearing her monogram alongside a double-headed Imperial eagle.
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