Special Auction Services

A look at unusual lots that stood out in recent auctions

This rare 1880s Jean Roullet ‘Le Berger Watteau’ shepherdess with lamb automaton starred when the second part of one of the largest doll collections on offer in recent times went under the hammer.

Giles Grendey (1696-1780) was a well known English cabinetmaker with a workshop in Clerkenwell, a member of the Joiners company rising to Master.

What Special Auction Services (20% buyer’s premium) in Newbury billed as “the largest and most valuable doll collection to been seen at auction for 25 years” went under the hammer on February 22 with a further slice to come in April.

Once considered to be the refuge of geeky teenagers, fantasy and sci-fi role playing and tabletop gaming is now hugely popular, with various celebs keen to proclaim their passion for all things orc and elf.

The appeal of more modern toys for the latest collectors buying based on nostalgia for childhood playthings was underlined by a large group of Transformers offered at Special Auction Services on January 17.

Penny in the slot machines known as a ‘Working Model’ came in many guises but, essentially, they all formed a large upright cabinet with a glass window top section.

Special Auction Services is selling what it bills as ‘the largest and most valuable doll collection to been seen at auction for 25 years’.

Auction offered near-complete example of the set that also formed a first pocket atlas of England and Wales

Special Auction Services (SAS) achieved its most valuable ever auction last month, selling banknotes.

Collection amassed by the popular TV magician leaves bidders spellbound as nearly all items get away

This wonderful photo taken in 1914 shows the Coghill family plus a rather hairy friend: a rare large Steiff centre-seam teddy bear c.1906.

This large 21in (54cm) early 20th century Arts and Crafts charger was painted by Louise Powell (1865-1956) for Wedgwood.

Special Auctions Services (25% buyer’s premium) in Newbury sold the collection of John Garside last month.

When the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp was liberated on April 15, 1945, a party of British Red Cross nurses and doctors stayed and tended those they could help back to health.

It was supposedly as a result of a bet whether it was possible to make a camera that could fit into a cigarette packet that Noel Pemberton Billing (1881-1948) began work on a miniature, collapsible camera that would accept 35mm film.

The sale of Photographica & Cameras at Special Auction Services in Newbury on April 26 features this complete set of 'Tour Of The World' stereoviews by the Keystone View Company of Meadville, Pennsylvania.

Henry William Dee, the son of Soho silversmith Thomas William Dee (c.1792- 1869), made a speciality of producing silver novelties for Garrard, Leuchars & Son and Asprey’s and other retail goldsmiths. There was real genius here and the patterns for many were patented.