LONDON – It has been a long, dry spell since the last significant single-owner collection of (exclusively) robots and space toys was offered publicly – nine years, to be exact, if one uses the Matt Wyse collection sold in New York in 1996 as the previous milestone. Christie’s South Kensington plans to end that drought on Nov. 17 in London with the sale of the Paul Lips collection, featuring a bumper crop of approximately 600 premium-quality sci-fi toys. The total value of the grouping is estimated at more than $360,000.
Paul Lips is a Dutch-born antique and art dealer who resides in Monte Carlo and works in Milan, Italy. Europe is his turf, and in the course of his travels around the Continent over the last 15 years, Paul has devoted much of his leisure time to seeking out the artform whose aesthetics please him most: lithographed tin robots and space toys from the “classic” period, the 1940s through the 1960s.
As he was amassing his collection, Paul never anticipated his quest would ever come to an end or that one day he would make the conscious decision to part with his collection. But that day did, indeed, arrive. Asked why he decided to dismantle his remarkable collection, Paul jokingly replied, “It’s not because I got married! Actually, my wife likes the robots and was the one who pushed me to start collecting them again when I reached the stage where I couldn’t find any more challenges.” Paul said he doesn’t have the time anymore to spend hours online searching for robots, and that he yearns for the days when there was personal interaction, a camaraderie amongst collectors and a general excitement about robot collecting. “I just loved those days in New York before and during the auction of Griff’s (F. H. Griffith’s) collection. All of the collectors and dealers were there, and we would go out to dinner and have a great time. I would like to see those days happen again and hope I can give it a shove in the right direction when my collection is auctioned – but hey, guys, now it’s your turn to travel to Europe for some fun!”
For additional information or to order a catalogue, please contact Hugo Marsh at E-mail: hmarsh@christies.com.
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