The Peacock takes the day

A star lot, an enthusiastic crowd both in the saleroom and out of it, and an interesting collection of items were the ingredients for a successful sale for Hartleys in Ilkley on 23 September. The twice yearly Toys and Collectors Sale clocked up nearly £64,000 with only 8% by lot left unsold.
 
The star lot was a Wurlitzer Peacock 850 juke box, the absolute top of the range when it was launched in 1941, the most flamboyant ever made.This item was sold at auction by Tennants exactly one year ago and then achieved a price of £9000. At the Ilkley sale the final figure was £15,250, a 70% increase in just twelve months.
As for the rest of the sale, the dolls went much better than six months ago, many of them going to internet buyers.  Conversely, the extensive model railway offering of 290 lots was mainly snapped by buyers in the room.

The best doll price was £700 for a large 34” bisque head doll by Simon and Halbig which refused to get past £350 six months ago.  Another large doll, an S.F.B.J. Jumeau 33” doll reached £520, and a highly useful collection of dolls house furniture and equipment in metal, wood and ceramic went way over estimate to sell at £420.

Amongst the various miscellaneous categories, two early 20th century pond yachts both around six feet long caused much pre-sale interest. One sold for £540, the other went for £400.

Amongst the diecast entries, a collection of twenty seven Matchbox 1/75 Series Models, all boxed, sold for £480, and thirty five playworn Dinky commercial and other models with no boxes reached £560.

The model railway offering, particularly OO gauge included three large private collections from Yorkshire, Lancashire and the Cotswolds. This boosted the categories to produce a much larger than normal offering particularly including locomotives, sold in groups depending on their condition.  The very first OO lot was a large quantity of track, but in this case most of it was boxed and hardly used and instead of selling as usual for virtually nothing achieved a final price of £320.

Also in this area were twenty four Hornby Dublo trucks and goods vans which found £250, three Wrenn locomotives including two Duchess of Hamilton £280, and a mixed lot of rolling stock, lineside items and a couple of locomotives which together reached £400.

Amongst the O gauge offering, a lot of five kit built locomotives, lacking motors, still rose to £600, and two lots of mainly plastic wagons by Slaters and others sold for £680 and £620 respectively.  A Bassett-Lowke L.M.S. Euston Set of two coaches, one with motor, with some modifications found £260, and a well made 0-6-0 LMS Jinty tank locomotive reached £220.