Features

Prices for more traditional toys such as dolls and teddy bears may not be at the heights of years gone by, but demand remains strong for the best items and rarities.

As in so many collecting fields, slight variations can be key when it comes to pricing of TV generation toys.

Two of the main manufacturers of rocking horses – and competitors – featured in two salerooms recently.

A rare large-scale Erzgebirge mid-19th century painted wooden market was one of the stand-out lots of the largest-ever Toys, Dolls, Dolls’ Houses and Teddy Bears sale to be staged by Special Auction Services (20% buyer’s premium) in Newbury.

Halls (23% buyer’s premium) offered the Enid and Bruce Moulder collection of toy teawares via a timed online auction that closed on November 23.

An English all-wooden doll originally presented by Queen Charlotte to her goddaughter sold for $200,000 (£148,000) at a US auction.

A rare, early 20th century Fischer tin clown tricycle wind-up toy sold for a premium-inclusive $2300 (£1725) despite not being in working condition.

A new American firm, LCG (Legacy Collectibles Group) Auctions, sold what it described as “the highest graded Cobra Commander GI Joe action figure in existence” in a timed sale last year.

Pedal cars are regular visitors to salerooms but rarer powered versions were also produced for children to use, partly for road safety training

Before the crash of the R101 during its maiden voyage to France in October 1930, there had been great excitement around the potential of the airship.

Certain areas became hubs for the manufacture of toys, such as Nuremberg and Erzgebirge in Germany.

These days, marketing a doll as Sindy’s saucy sister would be problematic. And the less said about outfits titled Hockey Honey or School Days, the better.

A sword sold at Kent auction house C&T (22% buyer’s premium) belonged to a British Antarctic explorer who died in 1912 – but not with Robert Falcon Scott.

Munich auction house Hermann Historica (25% buyer’s premium) regularly turns up showstopping lots of arms and armour and the star of the latest sales series was a weapon that was always designed to impress on every level.

The most unusual armour lot to emerge in recent sales was the late 16th century German brass parade cuirass which made £86,000 at Thomas Del Mar (20% buyer’s premium) in London on December 8.

The surprise lot at the sale held on December 11 by Ripon auction house Elstob & Elstob (22% buyer’s premium) was this 19th century Russian hunting dagger.

Arms and armour sales often throw out interesting talking points in the way of accessories.

A Lloyd’s Patriotic Fund sword of £100 value took the honours at a Bonhams’ (27.5/25/20/14.5% buyer’s premium) sale of arms and armour.

The scene on this 19in (43cm) Yongzheng famille rose dish depicts the Daoist immortal Magu on her way to celebrate the famous peach banquet of the Queen Mother of the West, Xi Wang Mu, who rules over the garden of the peaches of longevity.

This Qing bronze fragment measuring a substantial 19in (47cm) across was once part of a magnificent sculpture of a crane that adorned an imperial palace.