North West Durham Collection nets £134k at Vectis

There was a real sense of anticipation at Vectis recently ahead of the North West Durham Collection sale on 11th July. The private owner auction contained just under 1,000 lots, mainly of single item Dinky and French Dinky models and Vectis had pegged a mighty £100,000 pre-sale estimate on the entire sale. Well, now the results are in and, incredibly, the total auction soared well over that estimate and the hammer fell on a grand £134,847, with four Dinky replicas netting four figure sums!

The collection had been started by a small boy who had a liking for all public service and commercial vehicles that travelled around the North East and a passion for Foden lorries in particular. Once he had been given his first toy he was drawn to the thrill and excitement of collecting. However, Dinky Toys commercials were not the cheapest toys in the Dinky range and certainly not affordable with pocket money, unless you saved for a long time, so some were bought or swapped second hand from friends and later in life from second hand shops, auctions and fairs.

His collection grew to other commercials as well an extensive collection of buses and as the owner had acquired most of the variations the collection was added to with other Dinky toys, mostly cars but also some military and French Dinky models. In fact, this is only the first part of this fantastic collection and part two of the North West Durham Collection, featuring Corgi and Matchbox models, will be auctioned on 24th July. In the meantime, you can read about four of the highlights in the incredible sale.

Top lot on the day was a Dinky Toys No. 923 Big Bedford Van 'Heinz' - red cab, chassis, yellow body, Supertoy hubs "Heinz 57 Varieties" with tomato ketchup bottle logo to sides - slight sunfading to red paint and minor paint chips otherwise excellent with clear decals to both sides. Excellent in good plain blue and white striped lid card box. As Heinz used to say "the best things come to those who wait" but bidders didn't have to wait long to see this lot double its top estimate to realise £1,800.

Although there may not have been 57 varities of Heinz trucks up for grabs, another Heinz model caught the eye of bidders. In this case it was a Dinky No.920 Guy Van "Heinz" - red cab, chassis, yellow body, Supertoy hubs "Heinz 57 Varieties" with tomato ketchup bottle logo to sides - some paint chips mainly to upper edges of roof otherwise excellent with clear logos to both sides in good to good plus condition, slightly grubby striped lid card box without illustration, harder to find. It realised £1,680.

Another high achiever was a Dinky No.503 Foden Flat Truck with Tailboard - 2nd type burnt orange cab, chassis, deep yellow flatbed, yellow Supertoy hubs, grey tyres. Excellent in good plus to excellent blue lift off lid card box with white/orange overlabel depicting correct 2nd type cab. Estimated at £600 to £800 it went on to realise £1,680.

Finally, the fourth top lot among the Dinky items was a Dinky No.902 Foden Flat Truck - scarce colour variation of 2nd type yellow cab, chassis, mid green flatbed, Supertoy hubs - 2 paint touch-ins to cab roof, small rub to tow hook and rear corners of flatbed and front wheelarch otherwise excellent to excellent plus in near mint striped lid card box with yellow colour spot. Estimated at £500 to £700, it made £1,200.

Keep checking Collectors Club of Great Britain to read about the second part of the North West Durham Collection and, remember, to get the latest collecting news delivered direct to your inbox every two weeks, sign up for our e-newsletter.