Auctions

A rare Easter Island pectoral ornament bought at auction earlier this year for under £100 sold for £60,000 at an online sale held by Salisbury’s Woolley & Wallis on August 20.

This 9ct gold pocket compendium with hallmarks for Alfred Dunhill & Sons, London, 1950, hammered at the lower end of a £15,000-20,000 estimate at Fellows in Birmingham on August 21.

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.

The name Ducret has been closely connected to the world of faience ever since the 1950s, when Siegfried Ducret published the first of numerous indispensable handbooks for collectors of and dealers in European porcelain and faience.

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.

Our regular listing of UK and Irish books and works on paper sales

ATG’s pick of auction lots bought by internet bidders on thesaleroom.com, featuring both the highest prices over-estimate and the top prices paid online

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.

Our selection of lots from 14 upcoming auctions

Huge collection concentrates on a world before mass producing

Family archive features poem written by Alice author for the well-connected owner of a scrapbook

A Distinguished Conduct Medal and Military Medal group of 10 Second World War honours coming up in a New Zealand auction recognised not just one but two successful escapes from captivity.

A remarkable result for an unboxed group of plastic figures could be due to a ‘holy grail’ withdrawn set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

The highlight of the latest Militaria and Ethnographica sale at Tennants (24% buyer’s premium) was an extraordinarily detailed first-hand account of shipwreck in the Indian Ocean.