Steaming into Spring

22nd April 2023

On April 22^nd we held the first of the Toy & Collectors sales of 2023. As always it welcomed back a flock of friendly faces and of course new ones, especially from the emerging areas of the market in the mid to late 20^th century, as Generation X and even the older of the Millennials enter the fray.

The sale started as always with the doll section, but this was no ordinary section. We do not let “any old doll” into the sale, with only the truly antique or collectable making the cut.  Typically, we would expect between 100 and 150 dolls within the sale, but after a boom of seller interest we ended up with a whopping 210 lots. They sold as well as ever, with around 92% finding new homes and the following worthy mentions.  A beautifully made 1907 Tete Jumeau made £460, another smaller example from the same producer with fixed wrists made £640, and an early Armand Marseille made £620. Though the largest producer of early 20^th century bisque head dolls and typically not hitting high figures, this AM broke the mould due to its age and rarity of form. The highest price from the doll section came from within a large single owner collection of miniature and dolls house dolls, when twelve miniature peg dolls made £800, against the expected £50 – £70 estimate. Though there were four modern examples within the lot, the others had obvious age and though notoriously hard to value, the buyers obviously saw something they wanted.

The teddies came next with a hugely successful section, seeing only one of the 70 lots not finding a new home. The section was bolstered by a large single owner collection of modern collectors bears, mainly from the famed producer Steiff.  The best three single bears from these modern offerings all made £160 each, with a 1912 replica Othello bear, a Winnipeg bear and Nicholas teddy bear with "Faberge" egg necklace. The older of the brood though of course won the battle of value, with a Pre-War Joppi type musical bear making £270, a rare twin pair of a Chiltern blue bears made £420 and an early Steiff with shoe button eyes and classic ear button comfortably trotted past his £600 – £900 estimate to make a whopping £1,250.

This April the miscellaneous Toys sat in the middle of the sale and as ever, covered the eclectic mix of items that don’t quite fit into any of the typical sections.  This often leads to the most interesting and surprising results, with this section being no exception, seeing a single Scalextric Bentley by Triang make £130, a striking film poster for Dirty Harry depicting the famous Colt .45 revolver that fetched £210, two Japanese clockwork robots gain £270, a beautifully made “Rocking Horse Shop” rocking horse make £380, and a small collection of Marvel X-Men comics ended on £460. But the two star lots of the section came from the “modern” generation of collectors, seeing a hammer price of £950 for a folder of Pokemon cards from 1998 and later, and a huge £1,650 for a box of Star Wars Cloud City Lego. This same trend followed into the figures section, where although offerings from classic producers such as Britains continued to sell well, we saw more fireworks from the plastic lots from the second half of the 20^th century. From the 1980s a boxed Millennium Falcon gained £150, some loose He-Man figures reached £160, some loose Star Wars weapons made £200 and some unboxed and play-worn Star Wars figures made £480.

Next came the die-cast section, dominated by vehicles produced by the usual suspects of Matchbox, Corgi and Dinky. The best of the usual crew seen with a great condition James Bond 261 DB5 by Corgi that made £240 and a wonderful Dinky Display cabinet that made £260. Though the top prices of the section were seen elsewhere with two Shackleton Foden lorries, one tipper and one flat bed that made £270 each, and a huge 1:50 scale Bucyrus 495 mining shovel that rocketed past our estimate to make £480.

The trains soon came into the station as we launched our way first into the N and OO gauge lots, followed by the (typically) earlier O gauge items. Amazingly from the 120 lots within the two combined sections, only one item remained unsold. OO gauge proved as popular as ever with £120 seen for a single Railway Museum Rapido Stirling locomotive and £180 for a Hornby Orient Express set.  Of the O gauge where the true engineers lay, we peaked the section with £200 for a Hornby LMS clockwork loco with two carriages and £240 for a lovely condition Hornby GWR Bedford locomotive and tender.

With only two more sections left of the sale, things really started to heat up as we trundled towards the real crescendo.  Within the signs and advertising lots we had some really interesting pieces, sought after not only for their historic significance, but also for their undeniable style by the decorative arts market.  A Pearces Ice cream enamel sign made £170, a large cast iron "Passenger Must Cross The Railway By the Bridge" sign made £190, a very cool Hovis Cycle House enamel sign made £320 and my favourite of the section, a “DANGER” un-exploded bomb enamel sign made £340. From the same section we had a healthy dollop of advertising cabinets too, with a Carrs & Co. Rich Cakes display cabinet making £400, a stunning Cadburys Chocolate shop cabinet making £620 and a pair of J. S. Fry & Sons cabinets making £680. But the best of the advertising lots came from an abandoned manor house’s car garage, that once hid their chauffeur driven Bentley and now provided us with a stylish a wonderfully patinated floor standing Shell Oil dispenser that rocketed past the £400 – £600 estimate to make £1,300.

But the best of the sale came with some of the last lots and a small collection of purist large scale engineering pieces. These always do well and reflect a generation who not only knew their way around a work shop, but grew up in a time when you knew how to fix you own car. The highlights came with a small table mounted vertical steam engine that made £420, a larger single cylinder steam engine with 9” fly wheel that made £800, a huge (and very heavy) model beam engine made for Samuel Dracup & Sons, Bradford manufacturers of looms, that made £2,900 and a large expertly made locomotive boilered under type compound steam engine made by Frank Baines circa 1945 that also made £2,900 (with all proceeds going to charity). But the best of the section and best of the entire sale came with the showpiece of the room, a 2" scale coal fired Fowler Showmans Traction Engine with rear wince that snuck past the top estimate to make a wonderful £4,400.

The sale ended brilliantly and with a successful sale rate of 96%, which is more than any auctioneer could ever hope for; these sales represent 6 months of hard work and it is hugely rewarding to come to such a conclusion. Wonderfully, before the sale had even begun, more lots had already started pouring in for the next sale in October and we now stand with stores ready for those wonderful nostalgic nuggets hidden away in your homes.