Prices did not scale the heights of the first part of the collection last November – when 15 lots cleared £10,000 – but many lots sold over estimate to yield a hammer total of just under £300,000.
The top three prices all went to Märklin items, starting with the Fr155,000 (£14,900), eight times estimate, paid by a Benelux museum for a 13in (34cm) gauge I New York subway car (ref. 320), with four figures and burnt varnish.
A 0-gauge ensemble of four coaches, each 14in (35cm) long, soared to Fr63,000 (£6060), four times estimate. This included a green guard’s van; green carriage marked Berlin-München; and two dark red Mitropa cars marked Schlafwagen (sleeping car) and Speisewagen (dining car).
Perhaps the most surprising price was Fr90,000 (£8650), against a high estimate of just £800, for an apparently complete plain brass mountain-type 020 electric motor unit, c.1904 (ref. V1021), length 91/2in (24cm), pictured above.
A model of a Grande Gare, 2ft 3in (68cm) long with a tower 18in (45cm) high, pictured left, possibly by Märklin (ref. 2039/IB) and clearly inspired by the main station in Stuttgart, was hindered by rusting and sold short of hopes for Fr4000 (£385).
With its monumental austerity, the Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof (which hosted Nagel’s Tek Sing viewing last autumn) looks a typical product of inter-war Germany, and the catalogue dated this model to c.1930. The station, however, is actually a late example of Wilhelmine architecture, erected just before World War I.
Märklin dominates train sales with top three prices
FRANCE: The 2nd part of the J. Lemarchand Collection of trains and toys came under the hammer in Chartres (Lelièvre-Maiche-Paris) in a 680-lot sale on September 15 & 16.
