Models, Toys, Dolls & Games

The Cybis company, founded in 1940 in Astoria, New York, by Boleslaw Cybis (1895-1957) and his wife Marja (1905-58) produced porcelain figures for almost 80 years before it closed in 2019. Among its best-known models is a chess set.

One of the biggest attractions at the Exposition Universelle, held in Paris in 1878, was Le Grand Ballon Captif, a huge tethered balloon, constructed by Baptiste Henri Jacques Giffard, a pioneer of airship travel.

A Märklin tinplate ocean liner toy ship from c.1905-12 estimated at £250-300 steamed away on sale day in Nottingham at a hammer price of £24,000.

Lots of Americans wanted to fight Nazi Germany during the Second World War. Those too young could put a coin in the Poison this Rat trade simulator.

Andy Bastow has recently retired from a career in the world of insurance – so he now has more time for his hobby of collecting playing cards, alongside decorating his new Georgian Lincolnshire home where he lives with his wife Jackie. Here he tells ATG about his collection

Weighing in at over 40kg, a toy showpiece was not so Dinky after all.

Toy specialist Lankes (25% buyer’s premium) in the small Bavarian town of Döhlau could harvest a bumper crop of good results during its sale of July 20-24.

Elektro was built in 1937 by industrial giant Westinghouse in Mansfield, Ohio, for the 1939 World’s Fair in New York: the first robot in the world that could walk, talk and even count on his fingers.

This rare large Steiff brown-tipped mohair Teddy Clown bear offered by Special Auction Services (20% buyer’s premium) in its summer Fine Dolls, Teddy Bears & Traditional Toys Auction was once owned by a Josefina González González of Cuba.

Barry Potter and his family attended their first BP Fairs event following the sale of the business to Warners Group.

The Marklin ‘wagon within a wagon’ toy is a popular choice for collectors. Essentially this is a horsedrawn wagon that fits inside a railway wagon for transporting a long way.

Huge collection concentrates on a world before mass producing

A remarkable result for an unboxed group of plastic figures could be due to a ‘holy grail’ withdrawn set

Despite a repainted face, and the arms and legs not being original, this William and Mary c.1690 English carved wooden doll still impressed a buyer enough for them to win her at a hammer price of £4600.

Bertoia Auctions (25% buyer’s premium) did not hold back when discussing a Bing gauge 4 live steam toy locomotive with tender.

The He-Man film out now has struggled at the box office but the character in a smaller form amazed saleroom bidders.

Two of the most desirable of all W Britains toy soldier sets were offered in Morphy’s (23% buyer’s premium) Toys & General Collectibles auction on June 2-3.

Dolls’ houses, these tiny homes and their teensy furniture, create passionate collectors.