Vectis

Over recent years the market for classic railway engine nameplates has shown itself to be as solid and reliable as the great engines they once adorned. It is 40 years since the Beeching Report condemned a third of the British rail network to the axe and effectively ended the glorious age of steam, but even then there were enthusiasts who cared enough to preserve what they could.

Working in a newsagent’s shop in Flint, Wales, a generous grandmother decided to buy her grandson a complete set of the five-inch tall Star Wars figures when they originally came onto the market in 1977. She bought one complete set for her grandson to play with but kept a second set back in case any of the figures became lost, hiding the toys away in a cupboard where they remained for more than 25 years.

THERE is no getting away from the appeal of railways which were a major feature in one of two Midlands toy sales in June. The June 18 sale in Rugby held by toys specialists Vectis (15% buyer’s premium) set two modest records among a collection of Hornby items starting with a mint and boxed group of four 00 gauge petrol tankers.

Vectis, the largest toy auctioneer in the world, with a turnover of £5m, is to open in America. Bryan Goodall, who has owned the Teesside company for seven years, has recently acquired The Diecast Toy Exchange, an auction house based in York, Pennsylvania.

Full militarisation of a collapsing German economy towards the end of the First World War resulted in the country’s famous toy makers struggling for raw materials. Richard Steiff, director of the eponymous bear factory, was forced to find an alternative fabric to mohair, an unobtainable luxury, so that production could continue in 1919.

The Hambleton Group, who have built the world’s largest toy auction house, Vectis, launch a new auction business on Teesside with a sale of Georgian silver on August 22.

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.

One of the greatest public works that Sir Edwin Lutyens undertook was the erection of a doll’s house for Queen Mary in 1923. A miniature palace inside Windsor Castle, Mary’s doll’s house was more opulently decorated than the humble abodes of her loyal, grown-up subjects.

UK: Vectis, the Stockton-on-Tees auctioneers hosted their monthly sale at The Royal National Hotel in London on September 8.