It was catalogued by Kent auction house C&T (22% buyer’s premium) as “boiler (untested) to front of car, three opening side doors, missing burner, steering wheel, glass windshield and two front lamps, still in very good original condition, with a nice patina to paint work”.
The 19in (48cm) long model was estimated at £2500- 3500 in the May 12 sale in Kenardington and took £5600 from a UK collector bidding online.
C&T toys specialist Glen Chapman said: “It came from a deceased estate in Northern Ireland; we were contacted by the family to sell it. Doll produced this car along with a lorry in the 1920s. At the time they were relatively expensive and appear to have been unsuccessful commercially.”
Doll et Cie (Doll and Co) was established in Nuremberg in 1898 by Peter Doll and John Sondheim. It made a range of stationary steam engines and accessories before branching out into cars and other models after the First World War. Its products were widely exported to the UK and the US. Under the pressure of the Nazis, the Doll firm – like other German toymakers who happened to be Jewish – was sold (to Fleischmann) in 1938.
