Auction Reports

Vendor finds glass marbles are worth more than expected as they make surprise four-figure sums in Bury St Edmunds

Pieces from two single-owner collections of silver by Stuart Devlin (1931-2018) and the partnership of Omar Ramsden (1873-1939) and Alwyn Carr (1872-1940) focused specialist eyes on Murray’s (20% buyer’s premium) in Douglas, Isle of Man.

Sworders’ (25% buyer’s premium) June 13-14 Fine Interiors sale included a collection of Norwich 17th century silver assembled by one of East Anglia’s best-known families.

Matchbox can sell well even when there isn’t an actual vehicle in sight.

Merchandise relating to an early show from the Thunderbirds creator makes a surprise sum at Kent auction

Sasha dolls are named after their Swiss designer, artist Sasha Morgenthaler and were made in the UK and Germany from the mid to late 1960s.

A rare work of 1767 called A Journal of a Voyage Round the World in His Majesty’s Ship The Dolphin… was offered by Thomson Roddick (20% buyer’s premium) in Carlisle.

The Matchbox Magic sale at Teesside saleroom Vectis (20.83% buyer’s premium) on May 30 lived up to its billing by entrancing bidders.

Not everything offered in the model railway market has to involve a glamorous name such as Flying Scotsman to make a good result.

Being a devil is profitable for a Pelham Puppet.

Novelty biscuit tin toys delivered a number of tasty sale successes for South Yorkshire auction house BBR (15% buyer’s premium).

When the (Louis) Marx toy company produced a friction-drive model Batmobile in the 1960s the plastic car that resulted was really a model of the 1951 General Motors Le Sabre concept show car designed by Harley Earl.

The first lot in Pook & Pook’s (25% buyer’s premium) May 4-5 sale was also the top result. And if you follow the toy boat market, it was also strangely familiar.

It is not just Star Wars figures or film posters bringing the big bucks.

A stellar collection of rare Japanese robots and space toys featured in the Milestone (20% buyer’s premium) sale in Willoughby, Ohio.

Despite its many shortcomings in terms of accuracy and reliability, the flintlock Long Land Pattern smoothbore musket – or Brown Bess to give it its more familiar nickname – remained in use from 1722 until the introduction of the percussion cap in 1838.

Artefacts hailing from a vast geographical area come together in west London saleroom

Roseberys’ (25% buyer’s premium) sale of Antiquities, Islamic and Indian Arts on April 28 – which included the 13th century Mamluk manuscript on astronomy pictured on the front page of ATG No 2592 sold for a surprise £140,000 – also boasted this striking 12in (30cm) marble architectural roundel.

These two archival prints of David Bowie dressed in a striped bodysuit he wore during the 1973 Aladdin Sane tour were part of Chiswick Auctions’ (25% buyer’s premium) sale of 19th and 20th Century Photographs on May 31.

A musical ‘captain’s desk’ davenport sold for £9500 at Tennants’ (22% buyer’s premium) Scientific and Musical Instruments sale in Leyburn on May 17.