Stories by TimeLine Auctions

What’s Your Tipple?

  Blowing froth from a pot brimming with best bitter .. or ... sipping China tea from ornate miniature cups at a dolls’ tea party? What can those two pleasurable activities possibly have had in common? Answer: PEWTER. From the early 17th century pewter tankards (the lidded versions of the pots) began to grow in popularity among labourers who caroused on Saturday evenings at alehouses and taverns across England. Pewter possessed the advantage of robust strength, a quality needed in the rough-and-tumble atmosphere generated by alcoholic fumes. When altercations broke out, fi... Read more

Aaron Hammond (Chief Operating Officer), TimeLine Auctions, 30th May 2023

Brief Observations on Lot 4

  The hammer price + Bp (£5,200) achieved by Lot No. 0004 (Fowl-Roasting Scene) in TimeLine Auction's 23 May 23rd 2023 sale delighted all in attendance. Bidders and onlookers around the room seemed to share an empathic moment as the tableau of a cook roasting a spitted bird over a fire-bowl came under scrutiny. We have all been there; in Christmas kitchens, or around back-garden barbecues; attentively twiddling fan-assisted oven controls; or wafting charcoal briquettes to coax a little more heat to work its magic on the pallid pink poultry skin. Yet Lot No. 0004’s ... Read more

Michael Healy (Photographer), TimeLine Auctions, 26th May 2023

Her Life at Stake for Coining a Fake

  TimeLine researchers expose wrongdoers who create, and attempt to sell, spurious coins and antiquities. Such crimes have, of course, occurred throughout history. Fakers, when exposed, have suffered severe retribution. TimeLine recently uncovered a newspaper report on the execution of an 18th century coiner. Not much of a headline story, you might imagine. After all, several hundred counterfeiters paid with their lives during the reign of George III. But two striking facts jumped out from the newspaper page as this amazing eye-witness account was read by TimeLine staff: the fake maker... Read more

Tanja Maijala (Head of Administration), TimeLine Auctions, 16th May 2023

From Pieces Of Eight .. to Pieces of Two

  Collectors from countries across the world know and admire the Spanish silver 8 reales as a handsome numismatic piece. Its accuracy of weight, purity of silver, and milled edge as a safeguard against clipping, also gave the denomination an international reputation. In the 18th and early 19th centuries reales were the currency of world trade. During those years the silver eight reales was known, throughout all English-speaking colonies, and in post-Colonial America, as the Spanish Dollar. (See TimeLine Auctions archived catalogues for several examples we have auctioned in the past.) F... Read more

TimeLine Auctions, 11th May 2023

Charles I, II, III: A Trio of Controversial Coronations

All three English monarchs named Charles have divided public opinion on issues that cast shadows on their crowning ceremonies. On the other hand, all three have bequeathed to us interesting coin issues worth adding to our collections. Let’s run through some of the time lines and historical events that connect the enthronements of these kings. Charles Stuart became Prince of Wales in 1616. His father, King James, hoped his son would marry a Spanish princess, and that England and Spain would then form an alliance to end costly European wars. A personal visit by Charles to the Spanish ... Read more

Brett Hammond (Chief Executive Officer), TimeLine Auctions, 2nd May 2023

The Men of Bronze

An important change in the Greek burial customs took place around 700 B.C. when the men were no longer buried with their weaponry. At the same time, the old monarchies disappeared giving way to the aristocratic governments based on the new urban structure of the Poleis. At first, the Aristoi were able control the power within the cities, creating an aristocratic republic. This was soon followed by the change in economic situation, which was based upon the development of the commerce and craftsmanship, and favoured the rising of the middle classes of the demos (the people). These social chan... Read more

Dr Raffaele D’Amato, archaeologist at L.A.D., Laboratorio Antiche Province Danubiane, University of Ferrara, 28 April 2023

Fantasy or Fake?

  TimeLine has included several lots of Billy and Charlie’s strange artefacts in past auctions; and today’s TimeLine vetting staff are well prepared for any forthcoming challenge to decide whether an offered lot is a genuine fake .. or a fake of a fake Billy and Charlie. The popularity of the originals is such that fakers have indeed been at work attempting to cash-in on heightened interest. You may rest assured that TimeLine is woke to their fake making… The 1840s and 1850s were decades that had witnessed tremendous growth of interest in historical items disc... Read more

TimeLine Auctions, 24th April 2023

Nothing Fake About These Deadly Leaden Missiles

TimeLine researchers recently learned of ancient shepherds equipped with slings, who fired holed pebbles over their flocks when the herders wanted the animals to move to fresh grazing grounds. The whistling sounds thus generated unsettled the sheep and goats and encouraged them to change direction as they wandered. When similarly holed projectiles, in this case made from lead, came to light during excavations at Burnswark Iron Age hillfort in Dumfriesshire, the possibility that noise generation provided a motive for firing them provoked lively discussion among the excavators. Here is what the ... Read more

Brett Hammond (Chief Executive Officer), TimeLine Auctions, 18th April 2023

Official Replica Alfred The Great Penny Compared to a Becker Fake

  An Alfred the Great coin, with LONDONIA monogram reverse, was submitted to TimeLine Auctions recently. This is always a popular Anglo-Saxon lot, especially sought-after by London’s many collectors hoping to add examples from the capital’s early mint to their cabinets. TimeLine’s numismatic vetting team had examined the piece prior to its acceptance in our sale, so we had supreme confidence in its authenticity. Ninety-nine years earlier, at the 1924 British Empire Exhibition, the Royal Mint’s pavilion included a group of mint workers who wore Anglo-Sax... Read more

TimeLine Auctions, 12th April 2023

TimeLine Auctions - “Et tu, Brute?”

  The pugio, renowned in literature as the hidden weapon carried by each of the conspirators who assassinated Julius Caesar, was also the battle dagger most favoured by the Roman legionary when he fought at close-quarters on bloody battlefields across the Empire. It is thought that the Romans first encountered foes armed with short, triangular bladed daggers with two-disc hilts during their decades of savage warfare against the Celtiberians in Spain. The long war culminated in an eight-month blockade of Numantia, a tribal city where many of the inhabitants chose suicide rather than sub... Read more

Aaron Hammond (Chief Operating Officer), TimeLine Auctions, 6th April 2023

Casting Lamplight on Ancient Fakes

  TimeLine Auctions fights its continuous campaign against fakers by rigorously vetting and scientifically testing material to be offered for sale at each of our auctions. Later a panel of external experts convenes, normally over three days, to carry out first-hand examination of the auction lots. Our system allows for independent assessment of material before it wins approval for inclusion in our sales. This quest to root out fakes commenced many years before TimeLine picked up the banner and took up the challenge. One of our recent lots – a Roman oil lamp with the word FORTI... Read more

Brett Hammond (Chief Executive Officer), TimeLine Auctions, 3rd April 2023

TimeLine Auctions - The Return of Young Bacchus

  When I started working full time for TimeLine Auctions back in 2020, I decided that one of my main goals was to support my team to continue to improve the process of identifying possibly stolen or looted items in the art market. Our hard work was rewarded at the beginning of this year, when we played an instrumental part in the return of the statue of a young Bacchus, stolen from Musée du Pays Châtillonnais in December 1973. Witnessing the joy of Catherine Monnet, director of the museum, when she received the 1st century Gallo-Roman masterpiece back, was everything that ... Read more

Dr Raffaele D’Amato, archaeologist at L.A.D., Laboratorio Antiche Province Danubiane, University of Ferrara, 13 April 2023