Value of toy soldiers goes marching on

If you still have a collection of toy soldiers stashed away in your attic, they could be quite valuable.

According to Mr Ian Whyte, director of Whyte's auction house in Marlborough Street, Dublin, toy soldiers are "very collectable" and can fetch "good money". "We have a lot of people asking for them," he says.

If lead toy soldiers are in mint condition and in their original box "and they're pre-1950, you can expect almost a minimum of £10 a piece. But you can go around to toy fares and pick them up for 50 pence to a couple of quid each as odds - with paint chips and things off them," he says.

But collectors are not solely interested in old toys. "There's a chap up the North who makes toy soldiers - beautiful handmade things. He does a lot of stuff you wouldn't normally get like Irish Citizen Army and the Volunteers and various Irish regiments in the Wild Geese - beautiful things - and he actually can't make them fast enough. I've seen him at the shows and he puts out his stand and within two hours everything is sold," he says.

According to Mr Whyte there used to be a model toy soldier society in Ireland but he hasn't heard from it for a while. "They used to meet in Buswells and they had a lovely display down there."

Mr Daniel Agnew, toy soldier specialist at Christie's in London, says even some early plastic soldiers by Britains such as the Eyes Right range from the early 1960s can be worth £10 a piece. The original cellophane and card box can add to values.

But Christie's generally sells lead soldiers. According to Mr Agnew, these were phased out because of health concerns and because they had fairly sharp lances or swords. They weren't "terribly safe by today's standard".

More unusual figures tend to fetch higher values. While some figures can be worth up to £100 each, generally, toy soldiers range from £5 to £15 each and £10 to £20 for soldiers mounted on a horse.

The world record price for a toy soldier, a prototype for a marching guardsman, is £3,080 sterling, sold at Christie's in 1994, says Mr Agnew.

A single collection of toy soldiers and figures including crusaders, knights, British and German infantry, a leopard hunt and a camel caravan (see photograph) in the Christie's auction on December 3rd next is valued at £55,000 to £60,000 sterling.

It includes German-made soldiers known as "flats" - two-dimensional toys. The earliest kind of soldier, they were particularly popular in the 1840s and 1850s. A "flat" of two decorative Prussian soldiers playing cards is estimated at £400 to £600.

A Britains set of 21 toy soldiers of the US Marine Corps band is expected to fetch £800 to £1,200, while five individually boxed Knights of Agincourt depicting brightly coloured knights in naturalistic poses jousting on horseback is estimated at £400 to £600.

Display sets can be particularly valuable. Britains soldiers generally came in a box of four to 10 pieces. But certain sets had more than 250 figures. One of the biggest, set 131, was a British army display which had 275 pieces. It cost £8 in the 1930s "which was a huge amount of money. In excellent condition today it could fetch £20,000", he says.

Mr Agnew is happy to give free valuations to readers who phone or send photographs, without any obligation to sell. He says: "Some people can be a bit embarrassed about bringing a tatty old box of soldiers and often those are the boxes that have the most surprises in them."

Readers can contact Mr Daniel Agnew, toy soldier specialist at Christie's in London, by phoning 00 44 171 321 3335.