Finding our Marbles, with the King of Rock and Yoll and a clockwork peacock

25th April 2026

The Toy & Collectors Sale in all its quirky splendour erupted into life on a glorious Spring day on Saturday April 25^th.  A very well viewed sale had seats filled and galloping bids from the online fraternity, representing bidders from right across the globe.

So many of our sales cover the life and history of our regal past, the Toy Sale did the same, but in a way you might not expect, when an autograph by the King himself, Elvis Presley, sold for a brilliant £250; helped by an original letter from the lady who met him by chance on her visit to Graceland.

People literally lost their marbles in the miscellaneous toy section, when two consecutive lots of antique marbles made £380 and £400, boasting some rare handmade examples with truly artistic double twist centres. Within the same section a duo of Action Man figures, from the 1960s & 70s, also shocked our prior expectations with a strong £250 on the hammer.

The doll buyers always prove to be a passionate bunch, chatty on view days, yet deeply competitive during the sale. My favourite doll from the sale, a particularly surly looking boy by Lenci, with shorts three sizes too small and a hand knitted jumper, made a healthy £340, he was followed by a stunning bisque head French Paris Bebe with her original box that made £480 and near the end of the section a Steiner Automaton doll made her money with a great result of £540.

This sale held a particularly good section of tinplate toys, adorned in most cases with classical clockwork mechanisms, with drumming boys, performing monkeys and Schuco motorbikes in all directions. The best piece from within the section was an extremely rare boxed German clockwork peacock, with a walking action and large tail that fans open to reveal her beautifully painted plumage, she adorned the sales catalogue cover and made over her estimate at £460.

Of the trains and engineering lots, we had a whopping 251 lots of 0 and 00-gauage trains, selling with an almost 100% success rate, followed by a highly interesting engineering collection of live steam models and miniature boats. The best of the trains came from an excellent quality Hornby Dublo 2245 electric locomotive in its box that made £340, and from the engineering lots an antique horizontal stationary single cylinder mill engine, possibly a 19^th century mill owner’s model of his own full-sized engine, made a whopping £950.

The first toy sale of 2026 seems to have come in a flash, yet work has already started on our second, with a stunning Victorian rocking horse and a huge collection of Steiff bears waiting in the wings to be presented to the world. If you have any toys that you wish to have valued for auction, do not hesitate to get in touch with our team of valuers.