Antiques Trade Gazette 41
Left: Dinky South African issue Ford Cortina, £2100 at Vectis on December 9.
Below left: Dinky South African issue Ford Fairlane, £1300 at SAS on January 21-22.
Below right: Dinky South African issue Volvo 1225 in avocado green, £920 at SAS.
Dinky’s South African odyssey finally brings rewards
SOUTH Africa’s withdrawal from the Commonwealth in 1961 brought with it hefty import taxes on finished luxury goods: a difficult moment for Meccano, for whom the colonies were key markets. To resolve this problem, and escape
the levy on finished goods, Meccano briefly experimented with shipping Dinky Toy parts to South Africa, where models were assembled and painted locally. Toys using English parts were made
between 1962 and 1963 (it is believed only one batch of each model was produced) while a further six models were made with bare metal parts imported from the French factory in 1966. In short, South African Dinky Toys are
very rare – and distinguished by their unusual colours, base plates with a gloss rather than a matt finish and (should they survive) boxes with Afrikaans lettering at the one end and Printed in South Africa on the side. A number of very good examples have
been on the market in recent weeks. In chronological order, we begin
at Thornaby, Stockton-on-Tees on December 9 when Vectis had been surprised to see a No.139 South African issue of the Ford Cortina – a very scarce example in mid green, with beige interior that came in its South African issue box – chased to £2100 (estimate £600-800). This estimate-busting performance in
what is otherwise a largely predictable market did suggest expectations of between £250-400 apiece would prove
lightweight on three boxed Afrikaans Dinkys offered by Special Auction Services of New Greenham Park, Newbury on January 21-22. A good version of the light 184 Volvo 122S in avocado green sold at £920; a French factory silver 552 Chevrolet Corvair took £880, while a 148 Ford Fairlane in mid blue, considered ‘excellent’ in a very good box, achieved £1300. The latter appears in a number of different South African colours from light green and grey through to several tones of blue. Back at Vectis again on January 27, a
Above: South African Defence Force covered wagon, £500 at Vectis on January 27.
Daniel Agnew
Te London Toy Auction in association with Convery Auctions Ltd.
Dolls, Dolls’ Houses and Traditional Toys – Sunday 29th May at 11am Teddy Bears and Soſt Toys – Sunday 29th May at 1pm
Lord’s Cricket Grounds, St. John’s Wood, London NW8 8QN
Organised by Daniel Agnew, formerly at Christie’s
By email -
daniel.agnew@
hotmail.co.uk By post - F.A.0. Daniel Agnew, Convery Auctions, Box 55, 48-54 East Main Street, Blackburn, West Lothian EH47 7QS By phone - 07515 004635
www.danielagnew.com An extremely rare Steiff red mohair
Closing date for entries is 31st March
teddy bear, one of only two known examples, circa 1908 £3,000-5,000
further £1700 was taken for a No.554 Opel Rekord, made from French factory parts in 1966 and painted in mid blue. This sale also included one from a series of military vehicles, based on the 25 Series Lorries, shipped to South Africa in the mid-1950s and painted in the livery of the South African Defence Force. This No.25B Army Covered Wagon, considered near mint but lacking its box, took £500.
brown-co.com
01652 650 172
auctionrooms@brown-co.com COLLECTORS’ TOY AUCTION The Auction Rooms, Old Courts Road, Brigg, DN20 8JD
Saturday 12th March 2011 at 9.30am
Over 700 Lots including a good 3 ½ inch gauge loco and tender, Stuart and Mamod beam engines and other precision models, over 250 lots of railway including good “O” and “OO” gauge, over 200 lots of boxed and unboxed die-cast including Dinky.
Viewing Thursday 10th 1.30pm – 4.30pm, Friday 11th March 2pm – 7pm and on the morning of the sale from 8.30am.
Online catalogue
www.the-saleroom.com/brownandco
Above: the surprise top performer at Astons’ December 4 sale was this Spot-On 156 Mulliner Coach, one of a number of Shackleton and Spot-On die- casts consigned by a former dealer who had sold most of his stock in the 1990s but hung on to a number of real gems. Made by Tri-ang to a 1:42 scale, the Mulliner was available in several colours from 1966: this near-mint example was in pale blue and grey with a red flash and Tri-ang Tours rear logo. Estimated at £260-340, a bid of between £500-700 for this model in this condition would not have been excessive, but the winning number – £1000 from a telephone bidder underbid by the internet – was seemingly well beyond anything that had been paid in the past.
BUYER’S PREMIUMS
Vectis, Thornaby, 17.5% Brightwells, Leominster, 17.5% Morphys, Denver, Pennsylvania, 15% Bertoia, Vineland, New Jersey, 15% SAS, Newbury, 15% Noel Barrett, New Hope, Penn, 15% Aston’s, Dudley, 12.5% Sotheby’s New York, 25/20/12% Frank Marshall, Knutsford, 20%
NB: premiums may not apply or have been set at different levels where prices from sales of previous years are quoted. Exchange rates are those in effect on the day of sale.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96