Models, Toys, Dolls & Games

Well-funded bidders joined the fray at the recent sale of tinplate toys held by Hohenstaufen (24.5% buyer’s premium) in Göppingen. The two top lots were very different but brought equally impressive results.

Full array sells for £26,000 while single lot hammers at £6500 as enthusiasts compete in salerooms

Private British buyers dominated proceedings as the Teddy Bears of Witney went under the hammer at Special Auction Services (20% buyer’s premium) in Newbury.

The highlight of an extensive selection of Barbie dolls offered at Wessex Auction Rooms (19% buyer’s premium) proved to be, as predicted, an example of the very earliest produced.

A rare group of Fairylite Thunderbirds action figures sold for £2100 in Tennants’ (24% buyer’s premium) latest Toys, Models, Collectables & Sporting sale.

Although made in Nuremberg by a firm named after a Frenchman, the cowcatcher on the front of this Gauge 1 toy locomotive gives the game away as to the intended market.

The production of carved and painted pine toys in Erzgebirge, Bavaria, became a thriving cottage industry.

It was overshadowed by the James Bond doll when it was released in 1966 and was granted a shorter production run, but the Kissy Suzuki doll from the film 'You Only Live Twice' was star of the show at C&T Auctioneers.

A rare set of Belgian tarot cards, c.1750, came from the Estate of Christopher Rayner, long-standing member of the International Society of Playing Cards and at various times secretary, chairman, vice-president and president of the society.

John Wallis was one of the leading publishers of board games in the early 19th century. One of them, Science in Sport, or the Pleasures of Astronomy, was first issued in 1804 and revised in 1815.

Star of the show at Auktionhaus Heilbronn’s (21.7% buyer’s premium) latest sale of tinplate toys was a rare three-carriage Märklin train from the Rheinuferbahn, the line from Cologne and Bonn along the banks of the Rhine.

In the early years of the 20th century toy trains made in Germany were also aimed at the British domestic market, eagerly sold by retailers such as Gamages.

Two examples of substantial model presentation cannon came up at different salerooms recently.

“Extremely scarce” was the description of a Scalextric C70 Type 59 Bugatti offered at auction in Lewes and it certainly lived up to that billing.

Our selection of lots from 12 upcoming auctions

A medieval gaming piece found in a sock drawer sold for £50,000 (plus 25% buyer’s premium) at Gorringe’s in Lewes – smashing its estimate of £10,000-15,000.

As a reminder that merchandise is nothing new, take a look at this board game offered at North Yorkshire saleroom Tennants (24% buyer’s premium).

It may be a “small” collection according to Daniel Agnew, but the array of teddy bears coming up at Special Auction Services on December 3 is also “perfectly curated” and “by far the finest and most exciting collection of teddy bears ever to come to auction”.

An Adelaide Huret bisque shoulder head fashion doll with accessories hammered for £16,000 at Cheffins’ (25% buyer’s premium) teddy dolls and bears timed online sale on September 5, four times the high estimate.