John Kinchen Collection

Over a two-day auction in June, Piers Motley Auctioneers sold the Dinky Toys collection of the late John Kinchen. There were more than 1,500 pieces in the sale, featuring some exceptionally rare pieces and, although not all the high ticket prices reached their low estimate, it was definitely one of the most impressive single owner collections to go under the hammer in some time.

Some of the highlights of the auction were; a Dinky 408 Big Bedford Lorry in pink with cream back and hubs sold for £1,800, a Dinky 135 Triumph 2000 saloon in blue with a white roof and red interior, boxed sold for £950, and a Dinky 935 Leyland Octopus Flat Truck with chains in blue with a yellow cab flash and pale grey flatbed and hubs sold for £2,300. From the French Dinky collection, a French Dinky Peugeot 404 with Circus Caravan with its box made £460 and a Nicky 113 MGB Sports car in pink sold for £300.

John had been collecting Dinky Toys since childhood and was one of the leading authorities on the brand, resulting in appearances on television and radio to talk about the subject. He was also a regular contributor to our sister publication, Diecast Collector, for many years. His collection was well known and at the time of his death numbered more than 2,000 individual items.

His modest flat in Portsmouth was crammed to bursting with Dinky toys from every era of production, along with parts, point of sale items, Dinky display cabinets and catalogues. Following his death last year, his family entrusted Piers Motley Auctioneers to take on the task of cataloguing, valuing and preparing the collection for sale. As such, Piers and his team removed crates of models back to their saleroom in Exmouth and so began a four-month task. In the event, 1,551 lots were prepared; 871 lots for the first day and 680 on the second.

The entire collection was on show in the saleroom for the auction, which filled nearly two thirds of the Bicton Street saleroom and was an incredible sight. John’s collection ranged from playworn to pristine and the range of different models was staggering; cars, buses, trucks, agricultural vehicles, military vehicles and even lawnmowers were on display. While the vast majority of the collection was Dinky, John had also amassed a large collection of French Dinky and Nicky Toys. Nicky were made under licence in India using Binns Road castings sent out to India in component form. These  were often finished in colours that were not available in the UK and were not made for very long, making them very desirable to collectors.

The first day of the sale started at 10am and was not finished until 8.30pm, with very little in terms of a break. The second day was not quite such a marathon but with 680 lots to cover, the auctioneer’s voice was beginning to wane by the end of the day.