Coventry Stuff for Sale or Auction (inc. eBay etc.)

What lovely pictures Rob, I love these drawings when you can imagine the artist sitting in front of the view as it existed then.

Yes, they're very atmospheric aren't they, Anne. It's as though the artist was asked by someone like Dickens or George Eliot to go "on location" and bring back images showing everyday life happening.

I find the Little Butcher Row and Derby Lane pictures particularly good.

Yes thanks Helen/Rob - When you see the Derby Lane one it's a miracle it lasted up to 1940!

A card that I've never seen before of the Singer Works, probably on Canterbury Street here.

A pair of paintings, one of which is an early interior of St Michael's here. I'd be tempted to bid but the presence of the second painting will elevate the whole to a price I don't want to pay, plus the fees, plus the nuisance of getting it back from Nottingham... I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it pops up on its own on eBay.

As expected it went for 60 which with all the add ons would end up over 100. Too much for me.

Miss L Lewis in the Dolphin in the Market here 1908-1914.

There seems to be a lot of interest in this postcard (30 viewings in the last 24 hours). The starting price seems rather steep but I suppose it's extremely rare, if not unique. It will appeal to collectors of breweriana (I think that's the word) as well as local history fans.

As rocksolid pointed out, this card appealed to fans of breweriana, post cards and local history. There were two bids but it didn't go for much more than the high, but not uncommon, opening bid of £15. It might even have gone to a relative of Miss Lewis. I'm often surprised by the price postcards go for. A rare shop front card might go for as much as £40. Fortunately for me, there is far less interest in original art pieces that might show something well before photography was common. Even original photographs can be much cheaper than the postcards. Again it's the competition by different collector groups that makes the postcards disproportionately expensive.

Pages from architectural and engineering magazine are increasingly being cut up and sold as etchings with local interest here, more than you ever wanted to know about a Coventry gas holder in 1884 and here the 1896 swimming baths. Part of me aches that these are being broken up but they may be more treasured as individual art works than as a mixed magazines. I've a few of my own that I'd never have acquired otherwise. And a book about Coventry's Empire and Theatre Royal at a decent price here.

I totally agree with you, Helen. While it is generally a shame to see any publication cut up, many of us would not have bought whole magazines full of articles about other places, when all we really want is a single illustration of a specific local subject, which is exactly what I took advantage of in order to create this 1896 Swimming Baths article, which uses the very same page that Helen mentioned above, but.... and I can hardly believe this..... I got back in 2008! Where on earth has that time gone?

Time does seem to be whistling past but it's been spent in great company For those who don't know, it's always worth checking, especially if an image comes from a book, to see if you can find and price the whole book. I've saved large sums that way. Example - Pugin's gables were being offered for £50 an etching but I bought the book for less than a single page. If the seller has multiple pictures at the same time for one subject, you can guess that there's a good chance the images come from a single source. If you're prepared to accept a less than pristine version (eg a bit of foxing) the books may be within a decent price range. The magazines tend to be slightly different because they're less likely to have survived long enough to be offered for sale, although I recently bought articles with pictures on Stoneleigh and Newbold Revel and to my surprise whole copies of The Lady magazine turned up.

A great book up for auction here POOLE, BENJAMIN. Coventry: Its History & Antiquities.

One book I regularly recommend and probably my favourite McGrory book here £4.83. Several available for under a pound more.