Major trove of miniature gems
DOLL’S HOUSE COLLECTION GOES UNDER THE HAMMER
TOY collector Catherine “Kit” Hewitt spent more than 60 years creating a world in miniature at her Tyneside homes.
She specialised in acquiring doll’s houses and a mass of tiny items from furniture to china, plates, and cooking utensils, including late Victorian and Edwardian items with which to kit out the homes.
Mrs Hewitt passed away earlier this year and now her huge collection will be sold by Newcastle auctioneers Anderson and Garland on Tuesday.
Divided into 240 lots, the collection covers thousands of objects, with the doll’s houses expected to fetch a total of around £20,000 and their furnishings a similar amount.
Mrs Hewitt originally lived in Longbenton and later moved to Newcastle Great Park, where every room in her home displayed the world of doll’s houses.
“The collection is vast and amazing to look at. I rate it as the best and most important collection of its type in private hands in the north of England,” said auctioneer John Anderson.
”There is everything from pots and pans, dressers, rolling pins, exquisite branded one inch-square biscuit tins and miniature packets of flour to bottles, potted plants, settees and cushions and garden furniture. It is unbelievable.”
The collection also includes separate individual open rooms and kitchens and shops. The contents of many of the houses have been assembled as separate lots next to the homes, as Mrs Hewitt would have furnished them, so that buyers can acquire both if they desire.
John said: “It seems that Mrs Hewitt spent decades thinking carefully about what was appropriate for each room in her doll’s houses and I wanted to preserve that creativity.”
The top of the doll’s house range is one attributed to famous German maker Christian Hacker, which is estimated at £800-£1,400, while a Tudor mansion is similarly rated.
Separate lots of furnishings run up to £900, with a doll’s kitchen and accessories pitched at £400£600 and two miniature mahogany chests on offer at £200-£350.
The sale also includes around 20 full-size dolls and a range of other toys, including musical pigs and vintage jigsaw puzzles. Anderson and Garland managing director Julian Thomson said that the auction house was “privileged” to sell the collection.
“Kit Hewitt, as most people knew her, was a longtime client at Anderson and Garland and assembled what must be the finest private collection of doll’s houses, dolls and other toys in the North East,” he said.
“She was well known and popular with our staff. She will be sadly missed.”