Dolls' house sold for £124,750

A German toy museum paid over double the expected price

A 15-room dolls' house built by two Victorian schoolboys has been sold for £124,750.

Brothers Laurence and Isaac Currie, from Minley Manor, near Fleet in Hampshire, constructed the house in the 1870s.

Made from two bookcases, it is 10 foot wide and 5 foot high and fitted it with five bays, three storeys and an elaborate glass chandelier.

A German toy museum paid over double the expected price for house, called Dingley Hall, at the auction at Christie's in London.

Christie's said the Norddeutsches Spielzeugmuseum in Hamburg was especially keen to buy it because, unusually for a dolls' house, it was made by boys.

The house was displayed at Bethnal Green Museum of Childhood

The house and its original contents give a unique glimpse of life in a grand 19th Century household, Christie's said.

A spokeswoman for Christie's said: "This dolls' house is the most important to appear on the London market for over 20 years."

It had been on display at London's Bethnal Green Museum of Childhood for over 40 years.