Features

One of the finest European railway toy collections built in the US generated a suitably enthusiastic response when it came to auction.

What was billed as ‘the finest Matchbox collection to be auctioned in recent years’ was offered at Vectis (20% buyer’s premium) in the spring.

Such is the recent appeal of dolls’ house accessories that you do not even need the ‘house’ to put them in, it seems.

A live-steam Gauge 2 Midland Railway locomotive and tender was the top lot of Tennants’ (20% buyer’s premium) Toys, Models, Collectables and Sporting Sale.

This rare French Emile Jumeau bisque-headed character doll from c.1892, with a distinctive light brown complexion, turned heads in a US saleroom.

By the 1980s toy action figures were shrinking in size from GI Joe and Action Man proportions to the likes of Action Force and Star Wars.

A tinplate model of the Alfa Romeo P2 sped past a £500-1000 estimate to take £4600 at Duke’s (25% buyer’s premium) auction in Dorchester.

Among the medal groups that impressed at Dix Noonan Webb's July 21 auction was one awarded to a famous recipient: RAF Group Captain Peter Townsend.

On a single day in 1919 the Imperial German Navy achieved the impressive feat of sinking 52 vessels. Unfortunately, they were its own ships.

A small fragment of a significant airship comes up for auction at Spicers in Old Goole, East Yorkshire, to mark a tragic centenary.

The Galloways were a distinguished Victorian military family, as a number of items sold at Bishop & Miller (22% buyer’s premium) revealed.

Cheffins’ auction in Cambridge on August 26 includes a silver presentation salver given to Air Vice Marshal James Edgar ‘Johnnie’ Johnson (1915-2001), the highest-scoring Western Allied pilot against the Luftwaffe and the RAF’s officially recognised top-scoring fighter pilot of the Second World War.

A new high for a British army Victoria Cross as 'exceptional’ example also sets a house record for a medal at Dix Noonan Webb

Medals awarded to a recipient who served in three very collectable units sold for £14,000 at British Bespoke Auctions (22/15/12.5% buyer’s premium).

This first-hand document recording one of the most significant naval events of the Second World War was offered at Catherine Southon (20% buyer’s premium) in Surrey this summer.

As his nickname suggests, Wing Commander Sidney Baker (1918-2007) enjoyed the finer things in life.

The sale of a Military Cross group of honours at Woolley & Wallis (25/12% buyer’s premium) of Salisbury marked what is believed to be the first time that the medals of a British prime minister have been offered at auction.

The near ubiquitous ‘Dead Man’s Penny’ of the First World War becomes a rarity should the recipient be female.

Letters written by Nelson to his wife make obvious his esteem for Captain Sir William Hoste KCB (1780-1828)

One of the prisoners to survive the horrors of the Changi camp in the Second World War was an art school dropout who later became a renowned illustrator.