Auctions

FLYING scale models of aircraft - the balsa and dope constructions that used to fascinate adults and children alike - are estimated from pounds 180- pounds 220 to pounds 2,000- pounds 3,000 at Christie's South Kensington transport memorabilia sale Thursday (10.30am). The lower estimate might buy a German biplane highly commended at a 1948 London exhibition. The higher estimate is for a one-third scale model of a Sopwith Camel with a 112-inch wingspan.

Other curios: matchstick-sized fountain pen made by Waterman for Queen Mary's doll's house, estimated pounds 1,000 at Bonhams sale of fountain pens, Friday (11am). A risque collection of 32 original watercolours of adventures of the novelist Emile Zola (signed H Lebourgeois) in Sotheby's Wednesday (10.30am) sale of the library of Maria Assumpta Centre, Kensington Square: estimated pounds 200- pounds 300 among general sale of books and maps.