At Halls (15% buyer’s premium) auctioneer Richard Allen reckoned that about 40 per cent of the 220 lots of toys at the Shrewsbury salerooms on September 13 were sold as a result of Internet inquiries, including this job lot, right, of 14 cartoon character soaps of the 1950s, including Mickey Mouse, the Mad Hatter, Muffin the Mule and Snoopy, which “had bidders in a right lather”– eventually selling at £160.
Top price of the £16,000 grossing sale was paid for a group of early 19th century dolls’ house furniture which made £2200.
Elsewhere, a turn-of-the-century German-made Noah’s Ark with 200 painted animals attracted £1100. Such are the vagaries of the market, and the power of the Net, that when this ensemble was offered at a Halls’ sale six months ago it was bought in at £400.
Other notable prices were £460 for a c.1900 games compendium, £320 for a Grenadier Guardsman money bank and, from a collection of theatrical clothing, a pre-1950s lady’s dressing gown, which sold at £115.
Mickey, Muffin and all Net collectors’ interest
The bane of the shop trade and the boon of auctioneers – the Internet has certainly transformed the marketplace and nowhere is this more true than toy sales.
