Auctions

Pierre Hodé (1889-1942) learned his trade in Paris, a resident of the famous Bateau-Lavoiri building in Montmartre where his close neighbour was Juan Gris.

The toy company of Lines is often mentioned in relation to rocking horses but it was a double bay-fronted dolls’ house produced in c.1895 that impressed at Sheffield saleroom Ellis Willis & Beckett (19.5% buyer’s premium).

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.

Penny in the slot machines known as a ‘Working Model’ came in many guises but, essentially, they all formed a large upright cabinet with a glass window top section.

The earliest records of the silversmithing on the Tyne date from 1249.

Works by Mary Fedden (1915-2012) are a fairly common sight at regional auctions.

Roseberys (26% buyer’s premium) posted the second-highest auction price for Peter Rose Pulham (1910-56) at its most recent sale of Modern British & 20th Century Art.

Portrait of Sandwich Islands noblewoman who visited London on diplomatic tour in 1824 appears in Maryland auction

For René Lalique, glass making represented a second career.

Dolls’ houses from the collection of a renowned expert and author came to auction in Kent.

This 19th century glazed wooden case containing musket balls, ceramic fragments and three complete clay pipes was eagerly contested at auction.

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

Roseberys’ (26/25/20% buyer’s premium) final Fine & Decorative sale of the year included this recent charity shop donation: a Nantgarw cabinet plate decorated by Thomas Pardoe (1770-1823).

Spotlight on a couple of shop donations that both ended up making £20,000 hammer prices

The Late John Ruddle Collection of toy soldiers sale held at C&T (22% buyer’s premium) on December 6 was a very special occasion.

A sterling silver scale model of the Lockheed TriStar aircraft was the top lot at Kinghams’ (25% buyer’s premium) Silver and Objects of Vertu sale in the Cotswolds.

A tartan deck blanket, a pocket watch and a first-class dinner menu were all top-sellers in the latest auction of Titanic, White Star and Transport Memorabilia at Henry Aldridge & Son (plus 26.4% buyer’s premium).

Auction offered near-complete example of the set that also formed a first pocket atlas of England and Wales

This terracotta figure is typical of the highly stylised pottery models honouring a fertility or mother goddess, made in Persia in the first millennium BC.

Dana Andrews, Peggy Cummins and Niall MacGinnis are not exactly household names these days but they starred in what is now regarded as one of the best horror films of the 1950s.