Flog It! star leads sale of doll museum lots

Bids from around the world are expected when more than 500 surplus museum pieces are sold.

Celebrity auctioneer and television personality Adam Partridge from the BBC’s Flog It! will conduct the sale of items from the Vina Cooke Museum of Dolls and Bygone Childhood, Cromwell.

The auction of dolls, toys, textiles, costumes and railway history will be held at the museum a week on Saturday and will be live online.

There has already been interest from a doll museum in Russia. The sale could raise £50,000 to £70,000.

An Edwardian golfer’s jacket from Newark Golf Club is among the star lots.

Since 1983 The Old Rectory, Cromwell, has been home to a vast collection of dolls and bygone childhood items built up by the late Mrs Vina Cooke-Chambers, and her husband, Mr Charles Chambers.

Mrs Cooke-Chambers died a year ago and the seven-bedroom property is for sale with a guide price of £650,000.

When Mr Chambers moves he plans to take his wife’s collection of creations and artwork with him.

Mr Ashleigh Shaw, of Adam Partridge Auctioneers and Valuers, has been among those involved in completing the catalogue.

The main collection is not for sale but everything else in the house, including the family piano, is.

“It’s an amazing place, a treasure trove,” he said.

“Among the antique clothes my particular favourites are the 1920s beaded flapper dresses, and there are some amazing Victorian costumes and accessories.”

Mr Partridge said it was rare to find such a large and important collection in one location and it was an honour to be asked to conduct the sale.

He said: “The amount of items is vast and in this case not only would a move have been impracticable but also we were keen not to spoil the integrity of the collection by taking it to a soulless auction room.

“Bidders will have a final opportunity to appreciate the house and contents as they were when Mrs Vina Cooke-Chambers presided here.”

Her sister, Mrs Iris Shepley, said Vina’s interest in dolls started when she was a child and they would go to Piper’s Bazaar in Newark Market Place which used to sell dolls and postcards of flower fairies.

She later started to make dolls of the stars of stage and screen and in 1959 presented a Cliff Richard doll to the singer when he appeared at the Palace Theatre.

Mr Partridge said he expected interest in the dolls and other lots to be buoyant.

“Nostalgia is the powerful emotion here and the driving interest. People will say: ‘I had one of those. My grandmother had one of those.’ It will be a day for oohs and aahs,” he said.