Models, Toys, Dolls & Games

The popular Chinese game of mah-jong is a relative newcomer.

With just five of the 630 lots of toys and models failing to get away and an £80,000 total well above top hopes, Special Auctions Services’ Newbury sale was, said auctioneer Hugo Marsh, “just like the old days – even better”.

Among the rarest of all Subbuteo games invented and manufactured by Peter Adolph in Tunbridge Wells are those without a sporting theme.

The first specialist sale of dolls and dolls’ houses at Lacy Scott & Knight (20% buyer’s premium) of Bury St Edmunds was based mainly around a single collection.

The antique toys sale at Morphy in Denver, Pennsylvania, on Mar 10-11 includes an array of French automata with creations by makers Leopold Lambert, Gustav Vichy and Jean Roullet.

The Fish Footman puppet is among the most sought after of the entire back catalogue of Pelham Puppets.

Star turn among some 120 lots of playing cards offered as part of a Stroud Auctions (18% buyer’s premium) sale was the last to be offered. A complete set of Charles Hodges’ Astronomical Playing Cards, it sold online for £3000.

This clockwork monoplane manufactured by Märklin in 1914 was one of numerous early 20th century tin toys made by German manufacturers to celebrate the achievements of the early pioneers of flight.

“As soon as the vendor pulled the board from her bag, I recognised something of serious interest.”

For a man who has built his career around teddy bears it is a strange quirk of fate that these inoffensive toys make him feel unwell.

An unusual but welcome inclusion to the latest silver and vertu sale at Lawrences of Crewkerne was a medieval walrus ivory tableman or backgammon piece.

A recent sale at C&T in Tunbridge Wells included an unexpected bid of £1700 (estimate £50-70) for three unopened Airfix models.

Part toy, part biscuit tin, the crossover appeal of a 1929 Huntley & Palmers product helped it to star at Hansons’ (20% buyer’s premium) five-day 2100-lot marathon antiques and collectors sale.

Just in time for Christmas, BP Fairs, aka Barry and Ellis Potter and family, will be holding a toy, train and collectors’ fair at the Stafford County Showground on Sunday, December 15.

Bruneau closes the year with a December 14 sale of Comics and Toys, for which Travis Landry, its director of pop culture, will join forces with ‘event entertainment company’ Altered Reality Entertainment.

On January 11-12 the specialist doll auction firm Theriault’s will be offering the collection of an American heiress, the late Huguette Clark.

The height of fashion nearly three centuries ago, this 18th century doll’s dress caught the eye at C&T’s (20% buyer’s premium) specialist sale in Tunbridge Wells.