Models, Toys, Dolls & Games

Aston’s Auctioneers & Valuers in Dudley is to close and its final sale – a sci-fi toy collection – will be held next month.

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

This Machine Man lithographed tinplate Japanese battery powered robot is the rarest of the post war group of so called ‘Gang of Five’ robots made by Masudaya.

MADAM – I hope your readers can help me track down a few items. I am trying to find some old Wedgwood Flaxman chess pieces from about 1825-70. I have been trying to complete this set for more than 40 years.

This Gauge II steam-powered locomotive below was made by Schoenner, the Nüremberg toymaker operating founded by Jean Schoenner in 1875.

Organiser of events across the country has fingers crossed for fairs scheduled later in 2020.

Among the European toys included in the August 13 Basics sale to be held by Bertoia auctions of Vineland, New Jersey will be this boxed saloon car made by the British firm Chad Valley.

This Britains’ boxed pre-war general active service limbered waggon, set number 1331, in very good condition with a good box, is one of the lots to feature in a US auction.

The Hornby train set is 100 years old this year. ATG reports on the sale of a remarkable century-old survivor plus highlights from across the UK regions

The fortnightly Saturday afternoon TV show Whirligig was the first children’s programme to be broadcast live from the BBC studios in Lime Grove, Shepherd’s Bush.

Underlining the nostalgic appeal of the 1970s-80s toys that today’s collectors once played with as children, this group of Action Man uniforms estimated at £40-60 sold for £1300 at the Keys (20% buyer’s premium) Toys auction on July 7.

Toys from the Attack Force range are not the earliest of the Airfix models, but they are perhaps the most desirable.

As implied by an extensive inscription, this souvenir chess piece was produced by Carlo Joseph and Arthur Alphonse Giuliano, sons of the celebrated Italian artist jeweller Carlo Giuliano, to commemorate a chess match played via telegraph in 1897.

Leicestershire saleroom Gildings is offering an extensive single-owner collection of large-scale model locomotives in an auction which will benefit a life-size steam railway.

First World War ‘trench art’ – objects made by soldiers, prisoners of war and interned civilians from munitions casings – does not get much better than this brass model of a Vickers machine gun.

A 19th century doll’s house sold for £8500 at North Yorkshire saleroom Tennants (20% buyer’s premium) – but its real appeal came from what was inside.

Joan Dunk (1930-2019) was a Portobello Road market stalwart. Her stall, for decades an outside pitch on the corner of Westbourne Grove, was affectionately known as IDA – the trade name of an early 20th century German kitchen equipment manufacturer which she adapted to mean ‘Interesting Domestic Appliances’.