Cult TV and film-related toys and ephemera from the 1960s go under the hammer next Thursday, with lots expected to fetch up to £20,000 sterling (€33,173).
A Diamond Planet robot is a highlight of the sale at Christie's, London. The clockwork robot produced in the late 1950s by Japanese company Yonezawa is being sold in its original box. A rare version in red-painted tinplate with metallic blue arms, it has slight corrosion and some wear around the base tabs but is nevertheless estimated at £15,000 to £20,000.
A single-owner collection of detailed replicas of spacecraft vehicles from television series including Thunderbirds is included in the auction, with estimates from £500 to £5,000. A replica model of "Thunderbird 2" which was used in Thunderbirds comics produced between 1991 and 1993 and on video sleeves and trading cards is estimated at £3,000 to £5,000.
A modern replica model of the UFO "Shado Control Mobile" with plastic, perspex and resin body, operating tracks with full suspension, removable cab canopy revealing detailed interior and roof-mounted rotating radar screen is estimated at £1,500 to £2,000.
The New Avengers' Steed's Special Leyland Jaguar and figure of John Steed is estimated at £2,000 to £2,500. Various James Bond car lots are estimated between £200 and £400. Sample Batman lots are estimated at £250 to £300.
Five Chad Valley dwarfs - Sneezy, Grumpy, Sleepy, Bashful and Doc - with cloth bodies and pressed and painted felt faces with mohair beards and felt accessories are valued at £500 to £600.
An Ingersoll Mickey Mouse pocket watch depicting Mickey on the face, the animated hour and minute hands shaped as his arms with yellow painted hands is expected to make £250 to £350, while an Ingersoll Mickey Mouse wrist watch is estimated at £250 to £300.
The BBC's children's programme The Magic Roundabout features with four Pelham hand puppets. A lot comprising Florence, Zebedee, Dougal and Brian the Snail is expected to sell for £300.
A two-and-a-quarter inch high miniature Book of Hours with miniatures by Simon Bening, circa AD 1520, is to be auctioned at Christie's, London, next Monday, July 9th. It is expected to fetch £700,000 to £1 million.
An Irish mahogany kneehole writing cabinet, circa AD 1750, possibly the best Irish piece at an auction at Mealy's, Castlecomer, last week, sold for £30,000, exceeding the estimate of £20,000 to £25,000. At the same sale, a pair of George IV period grained rosewood library armchairs sold for £26,000, far exceeding the estimate of £6,000 to £9,000.
jmarms@irish-times.ie
