UK

As with so many other collecting areas recently, the conditions of lockdown – meaning spare money and time for the fortunate – have led to buoyant demand for toys, models and collectables.

Cases of Australian animals stand out among a family home taxidermy treasure trove

Usually held on the mezzanine of the Decorative Antiques & Textiles Fair in Battersea Park, the London Antique Rug & Textile Art Fair (LARTA) migrates online this year with an extended run.

An extensive selection of Pelham Puppets came up on the first day of the Piers Motley (18% buyer’s premium) auction in Devon on January 18-20.

Models, props, scenery and scripts linked to Gerry Anderson emerged for sale at Ewbank’s (25% buyer’s premium) in Send, Surrey at the end of last year.

Thousands of items are available to buy from dealers online. Here we pick out one that caught our eye this week.

Famed south London market will open again under new management when conditions allow

The collecting market for dolls’ house furniture has been enjoying a boom period if recent prices have been anything to go by.

The British Toy Auctions (18% buyer’s premium) sale on January 8 in Runcorn included several Pelham Puppets rarities.

The final part of dealer Jack Webb's collection displayed his passion for military photographs, especially daguerreotypes, ambrotypes and cartes de visite.

Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions

A Dinky Supertoys 935 Leyland Octopus flat truck with chains in its original box sold for £8200 at Kent saleroom C&T (22% buyer’s premium) on January 14.

The strong level of prices being paid by collectors for dolls’ house furniture was underlined at a recent C&T sale.

How did toy manufacturers get boys in the rather less PC 1960s to play with dolls?

This Volvo PV 444 diecast toy is by the Swedish toy distributor Gösta Norén.

A summer boom sent property prices soaring by up to 20% in some rural areas of Norfolk as buyers moved out of commuter-land to what is described in estate agent-speak as ‘lifestyle-sustainable’. We talk to four antiques business in the county.

After more than 20 years operating a gallery in St James’s, central London, Asian Art dealers Jonathan Tucker and Antonia Tozer have relocated the dealership to Malmesbury, Wiltshire.

The Swiss maker Bovet Fleurier, chartered on May 1, 1822, in London as one of first watch companies to do business in China.

A collection of watercolours by Sir William Russell Flint (1880-1969) given their own stand-alone catalogue set pulses racing at Lyon & Turnbull.

Furnished dolls’ houses and accessories in general are proving the most dynamic area of the collecting market