Hammer comes down at whopping £27,500 for rare English wooden doll circa 1740 with murderess newspaper petticoat
A Newbury auctioneer’s hammer has come down at a massive £27,500 for a rare English wooden doll circa 1740 with a murderess petticoat.
The estimate had been £8,000-12,000.
The 18th century doll was dressed in a beautiful yellow gown, with her petticoat made from a broadsheet newspaper featuring the murder of a young maid by her mistress and daughter.
The largest and most valuable doll collection to been seen at auction for 25 years was up for sale at Special Auction Services in Hambridge Lane yesterday (Thursday) and bidding went on into the evening.
The sale made at total of £315,425.
The Doll and Teddy Bear Specialist at SAS said he was “blown away” by the antique lots in a forthcoming sale at their auction house at Nexus Park, off Hambridge Road.
The largest and most valuable doll collection to been seen at auction for 25 years will be going under the hammer at Special Auction Services in Newbury on Thursday, February 22 and in April and is expected to realise £500,000.
Austin Smith and his late partner Margaret Harkins began collecting in 1949 after they rescued a broken doll from a house contents sale in the West Country. The collection was displayed in several rooms in their large house and was rarely seen by anyone but themselves.
Doll and Teddy Bear Specialist at SAS Daniel Agnew was blown away when he first saw the collection at the collectors’ home. He said: “I was staggered by the first room which was full of the best antique dolls you could imagine, then shown a corridor full of wall mounted cabinets of small dolls, then another room of dolls’ houses, a room of automata, then a further two rooms of dolls.
“Truly a collector’s dream.”
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Other highlights of the sale were:
Lot 10 - Peggy, 18th century English wooden doll - £11,875
Lot 308 - Mid 19th century shadowbox of garden scene with two dolls - £9,375
Lot 23 - Bru Brevete bebe - £8,750
Lot 99 - Pierre Victor Clement fashionable doll - £6,875
Lot 16 - 1850s Rohmer fashionable doll - £6,250
Lot 177 - Schmitt et Fils bebe - £5,250
Lot 24 - Gaultier boy bebe - £5,000
Lot 94 - Mid 19th century KPM china boy doll - £5,000
