18 21st January 2012
toy reports New Hope for great Britains
■ Cache of classic Victorian mechanical toys by William Britain sold in Pennsylvania
Roland Arkell reports
PRIOR to the early 1890s, when he perfected the hollow-casting process for the manufacture of toy soldiers, William Britain’s (1828-1906) output consisted primarily of large and high-quality cast and tinplate clockwork toys produced from a workshop in north London. An historically valuable surviving
catalogue of 1880 features 23 different mechanical toys – all of them now highly desirable rarities. Collecting history dictates that
America is often the source of these great British toys. The sale, conducted by Noel Barrett in New Hope, Pennsylvania on November 18-19, for example, included seven models, perhaps the best array seen at auction since the Arnold Rolak collection was sold by Christie’s South Kensington in 2000. The Automatic Foot Race is an
ingenious toy. This catalogue of 1880 describes it thus: “This justly celebrated automatic walking match consists of a handsomely got up stand designed to represent a tent around which two men, richly dressed in silk and satin, are made to walk rapidly, and pass and re-pass one another in such a manner that it is quite impossible for anyone to predict
Above: The Automatic Foot Race by William Britain – $16,000 (£10,670) at Noel Barrett.
which will be the winner at the close of a predetermined number of rounds. The action of the men’s legs is quite natural, in fact a fair toe-and-heel race.” These toys are rare but there are
auction precedents. The example from the Nils Fischer collection (with some repainting and both the key and the winning post missing) sold for a below-par £3200 at Vectis in March last year, while that from the Arnold Rolak
A rare Märklin ‘HMS Terrible’ Estimate:
£40,000 - £60,000
collection sold for £7000 in 2000. The Automatic Foot Race offered
by Noel Barrett was better than them both and estimated at $8000-12,000 on account of its original wooden box with printed instruction label. The buyer at $16,000 (£10,670) was an American bidding by phone. Another of the 23 toys featured in
the 1880 catalogue is Don Quixote and the Windmill Parlour Game. The
contemporary description of a toy that combines painted wood, tinplate and the hollow lead casting technique that was to turn Britain’s name into a global brand is described as follows: “This pleasing toy illustrates the old story of Don Quixote and the windmill, representing a knight clad in armour, and mounted on horseback, who gallops round and
continued on page 20
This auction consists of over 300 lots of fi ne tinplate toys, boats and trains, the property of Ron McCrindell, the much-revered collector and author. Many pieces in his collection have not been on the market for at least forty years.
Contact Hugo Marsh or Bob Leggett:
mail@specialauctionservices.com Tel: +44 (0)1635 580 595
81 Greenham Business Park, Newbury RG19 6HW
www.specialauctionservices.com
The Ron McCrindell
Collection of Toys and Trains 20 April 2012
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