21 July 2011
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The last Reading Vintage organised by the Cliff Maddock/John Wilcocks team is a great success
James Parr reports on the last Reading Vintage organised by the Cliff Maddock/John Wilcocks team. ...
It was as busy as ever at the Leisure Centre and there was a queue waiting patiently before the doors opened at 10.30am. A lot of the dealers are familiar faces here but some newcomers were noted, which is always encouraging.
On this occasion, though, it was John’s stall that drew my attention initially. There was a good variety of merchandise for sale, some of which I gather hadn’t seen the light of day for some years! Typical was the assortment of tinplate, steel and brass that went to make up a large scale replica of a WWI tank: it wasn’t all there, sadly, and there was no maker’s name, but if you could have turned your hand to a bit of fabrication, the end result would have been worth it for an investment of £45.
A pair of Clifford plastic cars (a racing car and a Rolls Royce) with remote control battery boxes was an unusual find: these were in good condition and just £20 each. For £15 you could have picked up a boxed Kleeware pull-along Bubbles Train: this aped the Wild West locomotives of the 1800s and once filled with a soap solution, expelled bubbles through its smoke stack! And, down the scale even further, just £5 was being asked for a Tudor Rose/ Rosedale London Routemaster bus, with decals intact...