John Kennerley had assembled his collection over 50 years, but it was the pre-war Dinky vehicles that had
initiated his passion as a boy that attracted some of the highest prices at the auction.
Illustrated right is the 1934 first type of Ensign Cameras van (orange with blue wash wheels) which was judged to be excellent in terms of condition, slight chipping to the front
wheelguards the only deterrent.
Accordingly the vehicle attracted serious interest from collectors, selling for a three-times estimate £2300. Other sought after ‘first type’ vans were Crawfords Biscuits (red with gold wash wheels) in excellent condition, which attracted £1100, Oxo (blue with blue wash wheels) in good plus condition, which made £1040 and Manchester Guardian (black and maroon with gold wash wheels) which fetched £1050.
Best seller elsewhere was a no.2 Commercial Vehicles Gift Set, all excellent to near mint in a good-plus box, which made £1900.
Vectis chairman Bryan Goodall assured collectors that there were still more than 10,000 of Kennerley’s toys to be auctioned later this year, mostly Matchbox items and Continental diecast models.
Kennerley’s Dinky vans deliver the specialist goods
A former chief executive of Vernon’s Pools hit the jackpot at Vectis (10 per cent buyer’s premium) on May 8-9, when the specialist toy auctioneers dispersed just over 2000 lots of his Dinky and Corgi vehicles at their Buckingham salerooms for a total of £350,000.
