Models, Toys, Dolls & Games

As all Märklin boats were available with a variety of names and flags (trade buyers could choose these details prior to placing an order), it seems safe to assume this ocean liner named Deutschland was made for the home market.

It was full steam ahead at Dreweatts’ auction of model locomotives from the Salem Collection as a world record price was run up.

A rare Märklin ‘first series’ tinplate toy ’HMS Terrible’ was the jewel in the Ron McCrindell collection sold by Special Auction Services of Greenham, near Newbury, on April 20.

BY the early decades of the 19th century it was clear that the ancient and cosmopolitan game of chess would require pieces of standardised size and shape as it entered the era of international competition.

ENTERED for sale by a descendent of the family for whom it was made, this carved wood and painted plaster model of an East End butcher’s shop sold for £22,000 at Woolley & Wallis of Salisbury.

The range of British die-casts is so massive that enthusiasts tend to narrow the field and collect either by factory, period, vehicle type, category – or a combination of these. Nostalgia has a big part to play.

VECTIS have auctioned some exceptional Dinky collections over the past decade, but what made the David Ireland collection sale stand out was quality over quantity.

SOUTH Africa’s withdrawal from the Commonwealth in 1961 brought with it hefty import taxes on finished luxury goods: a difficult moment for Meccano, for whom the colonies were key markets.

AN original Monopoly set offered as part of the toy collection of publisher Malcolm Forbes (1919-1990) and his sons made $120,000 (plus premium) at a recent auction at Sotheby's New York.

THROUGHOUT this month, Sotheby’s New York are devoting an entire floor of their York Avenue headquarters to what they call “the largest and most comprehensive collection of magnificent quality European and American toys and trains ever assembled”.

A recent sale conducted by Astons of Dudley included a collection of merchandise belonging to a former Palitoy UK sales representative.

THIS exceptional Napoleonic French prisoner of war model proved the highlight of the latest sale conducted by Clevedon Salerooms, near Bristol.

THE October 8 toy sale at Nagel in Stuttgart will include this Märklin gauge-1 model of the Stuttgart train station.

MOST Star Wars aficionados are familiar with the story of the Flintshire pensioner who bought 20 Palitoy action figures for 49p each in 1978 and sold them at Stockton-on-Tees toy specialists Vectis for a small fortune in 2003.

THE world’s scarcest Matchbox car achieved a record-breaking price at an auction in Harrogate.

A REALLY top-notch example of an otherwise relatively ordinary die-cast has the capability to produce a surprisingly strong price.

METASTASIS, to most people, is a word with rather grim connotations – referring as it does to the spread of cancer. Applied to a set of playing cards, however, it has an altogether different and more attractive meaning.

THIS rare c.1912 Märklin fire engine toy topped the sale of the second part of the Donald Kaufman toy collection at specialist saleroom Bertoia Auctions in Vineland, New Jersey, on September 25-26.

THIS German clockwork tinplate limousine made a surprise £38,000 at Tennants of Leyburn at their latest toy sale.

THIS mysterious liveried Austin A40 Dinky van made for the Spanish company Omnisport sold for £6400 on the phone to a British collector at Wallis & Wallis in Lewes, East Sussex on June 8.