Here come the girls .....

Lala is smiling again

Thank you so much for responding to my appeal for the giveaway,  sounded a little desperate really didn't I?  I know blogland is quiet during the summer months and I have to confess to not reading my favourites thoroughly and leaving comments during the summer hols but thank goodness normal service resumes next week when the schools re-open!

I have had a thoroughly enjoyable first day of the Bank Holiday weekend with a visit to an auction house general sale    ....  I haven't been for ages and was getting withdrawal symptoms.  I love them ..... piled high with other people's tut and house clearance but you know what they say ....... one man's trash is another man's treasure ;-)

We had an hour to view and this particular auction house has four different rooms, two with furniture, one with collectables & house clearnance and another with better quality items.  I eagerly marked off the lots that I was interested in and took my place .... when I first went to an auction I was worried to death that I would scratch my nose or do something silly and end up purchasing something I didn't want by mistake and I would shake when my lots came up.   As a seasoned old hand now I set my limit and don't jump in straight away .... I find it's best to let others do the running and then take them by surprise just as the hammer is about to fall.  One important thing to remember about auctions is that the house commission has to be added which in this case is 15% of the sale price and this is then subject to VAT.

I was surprised that in these financially testing times there seemed to be an awful lot of people bidding silly money today  .... one example was two boxes of textiles which had an estimate of £30 .... I had my eye on this one and would have gone to £50 but two daft bats went into a battle of the bids and it finished on £130 .... I was gobsmacked!   There really was nothing in there that warranted that sort of money and just shows how easy it is to get carried away.   The only lot I ended up with in this room was a group of framed prints of greyhounds which included four nice vintage ones .... mine for £8  ..... cheap as chips.

After a bite to eat we wandered into the main room ..... there were three lots of vintage dolls in here and I really didn't hold out much hope of getting any of them.  I set my limit and off we went ..... the first lot was a group of four composition dolls with an estimate of £70 and the second was two walking talking Pedigree dolls estimated at £50.  Someone must have been smiling on me today because the doll collectors appeared to be absent and I got both lots for £80.

Do you want to meet them???

Here they are in a naughty state of undress as the clothes they were wearing are having a gentle soak at the moment.

The two walking talking dolls are both Pedigree although the one with the funky hairdo isn't marked .... their mechanisms are in perfect working order and as the legs move the head moves from side to side.  Their 'mamma' cry boxes are also working.  They date to the 1950s and I confess now that when I was around 8 years old one of my friends had the black one and boy did I covet it .... I have a dilemma now ..... do I treat myself and keep her but having seen their current selling price I could cover my outlay on the whole lot and have some leftover if I sold her.

The others have no markings so I am still working on identifying them.  If any of you doll enthusiast bloggers recognise them I would love to hear from you.

Hope you have all had a good day too x