Newbury

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.

Once considered to be the refuge of geeky teenagers, fantasy and sci-fi role playing and tabletop gaming is now hugely popular, with various celebs keen to proclaim their passion for all things orc and elf.

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

The appeal of more modern toys for the latest collectors buying based on nostalgia for childhood playthings was underlined by a large group of Transformers offered at Special Auction Services on January 17.

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.

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

Jade censer modified by the architect-designer for his own enjoyment returns to auction in Edinburgh

This 18th century Korean eight-panel screen depicts a subject borrowed from Ming prototypes: a banquet honouring the famed Tang dynasty general Guo Ziyi.

Chairs and sofas by Howard & Sons are a pricey niche market these days, largely immune to the varying fortunes of the wider market for Victorian and Edwardian furniture.

Pictures were a prominent part of the Robert Kime (1946-2022) aesthetic.

Focus on three days of dispersing the collection of renowned interior designer and antiques dealer

This 18th century Korean eight-panel screen depicts a subject borrowed from Ming prototypes: a banquet honouring the famed Tang dynasty general Guo Ziyi.

Three-inch globes were mostly sold as pocket globes, typically as a terrestrial globe contained within a ray-skin case with the celestial gores for the heavens pasted inside.

This carved marble portrait head of a youth shown here is Roman and comes from a tightly dated period of the 2nd century.

John Eamer was a wholesale grocer who dealt in sugar imported from the West Indies. His success led to him becoming Sheriff of London in 1794.

What’s best to do with unsold lots… offer them again at half the price guide perhaps?

Testing the market for still-lifes by Bloomsbury school favourite Duncan Grant (1885-1978), a painting by the artist emerged fresh from a notable source in Somerset.

A large stoneware vessel by studio potter John Ward (1938- 2023) sold for £35,000 (plus 25% buyer’s premium) as part of a private collection of his work offered by Dreweatts on July 11.