Barrett's sale of antique dolls, toys from Mary Merritt museum grosses nearly $2.5M A packed house of dealers and collectors from throughout the United States and Europe battled for rarities from the Mary Merritt Doll & Toy Museum at Noel Barrett's $2.5M auction held Sept. 30-Oct. 1.
News-Antique.com - Nov 30,-0001 - Noel Barrett’s sale of Mary Merritt museum
dolls and toys approaches $2.5 million mark
WYOMISSING, Pa. – Based on the more than 400 people who gathered in the ballroom of Wyomissing’s Inn at Reading Sept. 30 and Oct. 1, it seemed nearly everyone who was anyone in the doll business turned out to bid in Noel Barrett and Andy Ourant’s auction of antiques from the Mary Merritt Doll & Toy Museum. Another 600 bidders participated online through eBay Live Auctions, but only 5 percent of the gross was generated from the Internet, a statistic Barrett said was “extraordinary, since usually around 30 percent goes to eBay buyers. Collectors wanted to see these famous toys and dolls one last time. It was one of the largest auction crowds we’ve had in years. They drove in from as far away as California and Washington, and a number of bidders came from abroad.”
After nine months of preparation, carefully clearing the showcases and cataloging the prestigious collection, the Barrett team dispersed 1,073 lots in two days of frenetic bidding, realizing a gross of nearly $2.5 million (inclusive of 10 percent buyer’s premium). The total exceeded the aggregate presale high estimate by $1 million, Noel Barrett confirmed.
Merritt family members in the audience looked on as ecstatic buyers claimed their prizes from the legendary collection amassed by the late Mary and Bob Merritt Sr., founders of the Douglassville, Pa., museum that closed last Dec. 31. But this was more than just an auction; the event was also an acknowledgement of the respect collectors had for the Merritts, who, in their quest to build a world-class collection, made more than 150 trips to Europe.
The first lot to reach the high five figures was a remarkable 19th-century English-made butcher shop. Comprised of a pair of two-story Georgian buildings adorned with a British crest, flags and other ornamentation, the scale-model shop with center arcade was stocked with close to 200 miniature accessories, including butcher’s tools and individual carved and painted cuts of “meat.” Estimated at $20,000-25,000, it was avidly pursued by agents from two museums, one in California and the other in North Carolina. The Southern institution won out, paying $73,700. The shop’s energetic performance on the auction block set a precedent for the estimate-smashing prices that would follow.
“From the second lot into the sale, I knew this would be a memorable event and that it would be a long couple of days,” said Ourant, who commandeered the podium from start to finish. “On most of the lots I didn’t see two or three hands; there would be 10 hands bidding. This was a totally captivated audience. It was so different from other auctions where I spent lot of time with the absentee and book bids. It was all happening on the floor.”
A euphoric Atlanta collector wiped tears of happiness from her eyes after lodging the winning $225,500 bid for the sale’s top lot: a mind-boggling mid-19th century Scottish dollhouse considered the finest example
