Models, Toys, Dolls & Games

How much would you spend on an antique or vintage chess set? Here are three examples from different periods that sold across a wide range of prices.

The Matchbox Superfast 74a Daimler Fleetline Bus estimated at £60-80 as Lot 214 in the Vectis (27% buyer’s premium inc VAT) sale on October 31 made £35, while the version guided at £50-70 two lots later made £120.

The first American Civil War playset produced by Marx came in 1958 but in 1961 a real blockbuster version appeared: the Giant Blue and Gray Battle Set.

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

The highly imaginative post-war toys made in Japan for the US market are sought-after lots at auction

Created in the late 1920s by Spanish aeronautical engineer Juan de la Cierva (1895-1936), the autogiro entered service in the late 1930s.

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).

The growth in toys and collectables is related to the age of buyers and the items they remember from their own childhood, auction houses say.

With the blockbuster Margot Robbie-Ryan Gosling movie packing cinemas worldwide, this has been the summer of Barbie, and that also includes the toy-collecting world.

This set of 36 cards is an early edition of what became known as 'Petit Etteilla' cartomancy (fortune-telling) cards.

These boxed hollow-cast figures of Peter Pan and Captain Hook in a sword fight were made by Sacul in the early 1950s to coincide with the Walt Disney movie release.

Anyone who has been charmed by teddies all their adult life since maybe an early adoration of Winnie-the-Pooh could head to the long-running biannual Hugglets Teddies Festival.

From late 1940 to early 1941 André Breton and a group of other Surrealists including Wifredo Lam, Max Ernst, Oscar Dominguez, Victor Brauner, André Masson and Frédéric Delanglade re-located to Marseille where they anxiously awaited visas to escape occupied France.

The Vinyl Cape Jawa was the first Star Wars action figure to assume mythic status among collectors.

Once thought to have been produced in the Black Forest region of Germany, chess sets like the one offered at Ewbank’s (30% buyer’s premium) on June 23, used to be called Luther sets.

Another tranche of items from the Dudley Ollis collection of playing cards was offered at a recent Dominic Winter auction.

Vendor finds glass marbles are worth more than expected as they make surprise four-figure sums in Bury St Edmunds

Matchbox can sell well even when there isn’t an actual vehicle in sight.

Showing little sign of their huge popularity slowing down, Star War figures made a significant contribution to a two-day TV and film-related auction.