Special Auction Services

A highlight of the The Dolls’ House, Doll, Teddy Bear and Toy sale taking place at Special Auction Services on June 24-26 is a mid-17th century wooden doll, just 5½in (14cm) high.

Highlights from the extensive David Finn German toy collection sold at Special Auction Services

One of the rarest and most colourful Lehmann toys put in a bright performance at Special Auction Services.

A gentleman (Dukatenscheißer) with his trousers pulled down excreting a gilt metal coin from his bottom or a composition nodder of a grotesque women beating a child might not be for everyone.

Farnborough Technical College hosted many memorable bands for gigs it seems, judging from a six-lot selection of posters that appeared at Special Auction Services (20% buyer’s premium).

Palitoy was a major player in the British toys scene.

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.

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.

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”.

A look at unusual lots that stood out in recent auctions

This rare 1880s Jean Roullet ‘Le Berger Watteau’ shepherdess with lamb automaton starred when the second part of one of the largest doll collections on offer in recent times went under the hammer.

Giles Grendey (1696-1780) was a well known English cabinetmaker with a workshop in Clerkenwell, a member of the Joiners company rising to Master.

What Special Auction Services (20% buyer’s premium) in Newbury billed as “the largest and most valuable doll collection to been seen at auction for 25 years” went under the hammer on February 22 with a further slice to come in April.

Once considered to be the refuge of geeky teenagers, fantasy and sci-fi role playing and tabletop gaming is now hugely popular, with various celebs keen to proclaim their passion for all things orc and elf.

The appeal of more modern toys for the latest collectors buying based on nostalgia for childhood playthings was underlined by a large group of Transformers offered at Special Auction Services on January 17.

Penny in the slot machines known as a ‘Working Model’ came in many guises but, essentially, they all formed a large upright cabinet with a glass window top section.

Special Auction Services is selling what it bills as ‘the largest and most valuable doll collection to been seen at auction for 25 years’.

Auction offered near-complete example of the set that also formed a first pocket atlas of England and Wales

Special Auction Services (SAS) achieved its most valuable ever auction last month, selling banknotes.