Auctions

THE THIRD big collection of Dinky toys to be sold in a year comes up at Christie's South Kensington, Friday (10.30am). The 904-lot Hemley collection was the basis of the first Dinky collectors' guide, History of British Dinky Toys 1934 to 1964, by Dr Cecil Gibson. At Christie's South Ken last month, the Poulet collection fetched pounds 130,000. This collection, which includes a Bentall's van estimated at pounds 1,000- pounds 1,500, is expected to toal pounds 70,000.

More Dinkies at Bonhams Chelsea, Tuesday (2pm), where the sale also includes 80 lots containing a dozen or so jigsaw puzzles, almost all pre-war, at around pounds 60 a lot.

Decorative arts is an enlivening post-recession market, attracting luxury spending of cautious kind. Bonhams Knightsbridge's sale of Lalique glass is on Thursday (6pm) and Christie's South Ken has a dedicated sale of Moorcroft pottery on Thursday (10.30am).

What looks like becoming Christie's annual gamble on German (and Austrian) art is on Thursday (2pm). The sale has attracted two early wood sculptures of nudes by Kirchner, one estimated pounds 250,000- pounds 350,000. But there is little to rummage through: Germans evidently do not consign pictures abroad lightly.