42 12th March 2011 toy reports British & International Toy Auctions
Above: 19th century English butcher’s shop diorama, $29,000 (£19,350) at Noel Barrett. More shades of Gray in New Hope
PICTURED here is a remarkable 19th century English butcher’s shop model that was among the highlights of the spectacular collection of dolls’ houses, toys and miniatures displayed in the Old Salem Toy Museum of Old Salem, North Carolina from 2002 until its closure in May 2010. The 902 lots, assembled only in
the last decade by two members of a prominent North Carolina tobacco family (Thomas A. Gray and his mother, the late Anne P. Gray), were sold by Noel Barrett of New Hope, Pennsylvania on November 19-20. The proceeds of the sale will be used to acquire and conserve Moravian and Southern decorative art objects for the Old Salem Museum. Readers may recall lots from Grey’s
personal collection sold by North Carolina saleroom Brunks and an outstanding collection of period miniature ceramics, silver and furniture dispersed by New Hampshire’s Northeast Auctions. Butcher’s shop dioramas, a favourite
in the folk art community, are occasional visitors to the saleroom, but scarcely are they as good as this example, measuring just under 4ft (1.2m) across.
It is equipped with two Georgian-style buildings, three stout butchers and nearly 200 carved and painted wood replica cuts of meat and poultry displayed on outdoor stands. When it was sold as part of the Mary Merritt Doll Museum collection in 2006, its mahogany case was concealed beneath layers of white paint. Tom Gray had it restored to its former glory. It did not look overpriced when it sold within estimate for $29,000 (£19,350). The auction’s top lot was a c.1740
dolls’ house styled as a 4ft 4in (1.30m) Palladian quoin stone mansion known as the van Haeften House on account of its former owner, the Baroness Ann van Haeften, whose mother saved pocket change to purchase it from a secondhand dealer in 1885. Its rich history also includes, from 1966, tenure in the Vivien Greene collection of antique doll’s houses in the Rotunda Museum, Oxford, while the discovery of the signature Schuster – possibly that of German artist Johann Martin Schuster (1667-1738) – inscribed on the reverse of its facade perhaps gives clues as to its maker or original owner. Estimated at $20,000-30,000, it was aggressively bid to $115,000 (£76,650).
The Toonerville Trolley – by Fisher
The Toonerville Trolley train, a German toy copyrighted in 1922 is a regular saleroom visitor, particularly in the States where so many were sold. But who made it? This long-time mystery now appears to be solved with the discovery of this toy with its original box and accessories in a Brooklyn basement. The tracks that came with this set were unusually stamped with the fish symbol that was the company logo for Georg Fischer of Nuremberg. The 7in (17cm) Toonerville Trolley elicited a winning bid of $3500 (£2350) at Bertoia on November 12-14.
Above: the toy soldiers sale at Vectis on March 30 is a special one, including the first part of the Nils Fischer Britains collection. This Scandinavian collection includes some of the finest and rarest items to come to the open market since the major sales of the late 20th century. In fact, many of the lots on offer originate from those very same sales: the collections of Arnold Rolak, Charles Biggs and Bill Miele and the Britains Archive sales. The Fischer collection comprises archive material aplenty, from paint sample cards and clay moulds to shop display cabinets and the company staff pension agreement from the 1970s. A highlight promises to be a comprehensive selection of toys from the first known William Britain catalogue of 1880. These Victorian amusements, displaying the hollow lead casting technique that was to turn the Britains name into a global brand, include this toy known as The Automatic Foot Race c.1890. The two runners are attached by rods to a clockwork mechanism housed within a central cylindrical ‘grandstand’ lithographed with spectators, each representing a different country: Great Britain, Germany and Russia. A well-known, but extraordinarily rare toy, it is estimated at £4000-8000.
March 11-12 March 12 March 12 March 12 March 12 March 12 March 17 March 18 March 20 March 21 March 22 March 26 March 26
March 22-24 March 23-25 March 25-26 March 28-29 March 29-30 April 2 April 5 April 7 April 8
April 8-9 April 9 April 9 April 9 April 9 April 9
April 13 April 15-16
Morphys, Denver, Pennsylvania,
www.morphyauctions.com Brown & Co, Brigg (01652 650172)
www.brown-co.com Antico Mondo, Cologne, Germany
www.anticomondo.de Cottees, Wareham, Dorset (01929 552826)
www.cottees.co.uk Aston’s, Dudley (0138 4250220)
www.astonsauctioneers.co.uk Model trains, Vectis, Rugby (01642 750616)
www.vectis.co.uk Richardsons, Bourne (01778 422686)
www.richardsonsauctions.co.uk
Cotswold Auction Company, Cirencester (01285 642420)
www.cotswoldauction.co.uk Toys, Bonhams, San Francisco
www.bonhams.com
Wallis & Wallis, Lewes (01273 480208)
www.wallisandwallis.co.uk Toovey’s, Washington, West Sussex (01903 891955)
www.tooveys.com
Dee Atkinson & Harrison, Driffield (01377 25315)
www.dee-atkinson-harrison.co.uk TW Gaze, Diss (01379 650306)
www.twgaze.com
Bears diecast collection, Vectis, Stockton-on-Tees (01642 750616)
www.vectis.co.uk Lankes Auktionen, Dohlau, Germany
www.lankes-auktionen.com Bertoia Auctions, Vineland, New Jersey
www.bertoiaauctions.com Auktionshaus Dannenberg, Berlin, Germany
www.auction-dannenberg.com Nils Fischer Britains collection, Vectis, Stockton-on-Tees (01642 750616)
www.vectis.co.uk Dolls, Morphys, Denver, Pennsylvania,
www.morphyauctions.com Dolls and toys, Bonhams, Knowle (01564 776 151)
www.bonhams.com
Thomson Roddick & Medcalf, Carlisle (01228 528939)
www.thomsonroddick.com Collectors sale, Dreweatts, Bristol (0117 973 7201)
www.dnfa.com/bristol Alino Auktionen, Bad Dürkheim, Germany
www.alino-auktionen.de Aston’s, Dudley (0138 4250220)
www.astonsauctioneers.co.uk WH Peacock, Bedford (01234 266366)
www.peacockauction.co.uk SAS, Newbury (01635 580 595)
www.specialauctionservices.com Galerie de Chartres, France
www.galeriedechartres.com
A.E. Dowse & Son, Sheffield (0114 272 5858)
www.aedowseandson.com
Warwick & Warwick, Scar Bank, Warwick (01926 499 031)
www.warwickandwarwick.com Donald Kaufman part V, Bertoia Auctions, Vineland, New Jersey
www.bertoiaauctions.com
Left: the toy sale at Galerie de Chartres on April 9 is titled Behind the Garden – a reference to a fine collection of mechanical tinplate toys discretely housed behind a formal garden in Rotterdam. The collection comprises many rarities including this curious French-made biplane with its top wing decorated with French and American flags and lithographed with photographic portraits of thus-far unidentified pilots. It is estimated at €2000-3000.
Auctioneers are asked to send details of specialist toy sales, as well as those sales that may contain significant book and ephemera sections, to: Roland Arkell Tel: (020) 7420 6686 •
rolandarkell@atgmedia.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96