Models, Toys, Dolls & Games

A handful of collectors joined the competition when Mehlis (23% buyer’s premium) in Plauen offered a 19th century ivory and ebony chess set.

This 1950s battery-operated Mickey Mouse toy is part of a selection of Disney-related items in Potter & Potter’s Steiff, Toys and Pop Culture auction.

The studio potter John Maltby (1936-2020) created this chess set shown right for the Millennium celebrations at the New Ashgate Gallery in Farnham.

The American Flyer 'G Fox & Co' boxcar is one of the “most desired trains a collector can own” according to Philip Weiss from the eponymous auction house in Lynbrook, New York.

The late songwriter/record producer Aaron Schroeder (1926-2009) built an international music-publishing network with Abby, his wife and business partner of 49 years.

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.

This Doll et Cie four-seater open touring car toy, c.1920s, is a live-steam model made in Germany.

Demand for anything to do with Concorde is always high but a huge ‘museum quality’ model at Dominic Winter (20% buyer’s premium) had an extra touch.

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.

Toys from the private collection of Sue Pearson, the UK’s leading dealer in antique and vintage teddy bears and soft toys, were offered in Newbury.

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

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 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.

This impressive Baroque chess set by the Danzig amber artist Michel Redlin has returned to the city of Gdansk in Poland where it was made over 300 years ago.

The centrepiece of a sell-out 762-lot toy sale held by Milestone (20% buyer’s premium) was a collection formed by Margaret and Joel Weissmann.

Remarkable sums were paid for vintage video games at Heritage Auctions – including a record-breaking $1.35m (£1m) bid for Super Mario 64.

Some of the zest has gone out of the teddy bear market since the crazy days of two decades ago.

A tobacco pipe which opened the series and an opium one which ended it – interspersed by a cigar stub – met keen demand at Bellmans (22% buyer’s premium).