Doll

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.

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

As well as being an artist’s model and gallery owner who founded the museum dedicated to the work of the sculptor Aristide Maillol, Dina Vierny was also known as a collector of antique dolls.

Dealer Daniel Hadden is hoping for an early Christmas present with the sale of two tree decorations that once belonged to Queen Victoria.

The Barbie movie might not have been such a hit if it was called Bild-Lilli instead.

An intriguing painted wooden British soldier doll sold for more than 10 times the top estimate when it was offered at Guernsey auction house Martel Maides (24% buyer’s premium).

Lucy Peck ran The Dolls’ Home, a successful business that opened in Regent Street in London in 1893.

An early 19th century German Grodnertal doll sold for £2500 (estimate £600-800) in Tennants’ (22% buyers premium) Costume, Accessories and Textiles Sale on May 28.

The Britains Boer War Army Service Corps Supply Column set is described by toy soldier expert James Opie as “one of the must-have sets for keen collectors”.

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.

An English all-wooden doll originally presented by Queen Charlotte to her goddaughter sold for $200,000 (£148,000) at a US auction.

These days, marketing a doll as Sindy’s saucy sister would be problematic. And the less said about outfits titled Hockey Honey or School Days, the better.

Top names in their different fields, ages and markets, Wurlitzer and Armand Marseilles were the star makers at Hartleys (17.5% buyer’s premium).

The auction at toy specialist C&T (22% buyer’s premium) in Kenardington, Kent, on November 3 included this very rare pair of doll’s shoes dated to c.1700.

By the 1980s toy action figures were shrinking in size from GI Joe and Action Man proportions to the likes of Action Force and Star Wars.

This rare French Emile Jumeau bisque-headed character doll from c.1892, with a distinctive light brown complexion, turned heads in a US saleroom.

At 2ft 5in (74cm) high, this English made wooden doll c.1740 is unusually large.

This Oriental Bru Jeune No 7 doll was one of the successful entries in the January 21 Antiques and Design sale at Cottone (20% buyer’s premium).

It was not uncommon in the 18th century for a doll to be presented within its own miniature doll-scaled world.

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.