News Views etc . . . SAS - Tri-Ang Signature Collection

Just a quick one to spread the word about a forthcoming auction at SAS (Special Auction Services), off down in Newbury, Berkshire.

A two day sale on Tuesday 20th and Wednesday 21st of March is mostly dedicated to the sale of what can only be called a 'signature' or 'reference' collection. I've seen the catalogue and it's quite amazing, although not much for toy figure collectors per se; there are some items of interest.

The collection is of 'vintage' Tri-Ang, so not much of your 1970's plastic trains and things, this is stuff going way back and includes many examples of early 'playroom' and garden toys, ride-on, pull or push toys and the like.

There is also the most extensive range of dolls houses I've ever seen in one auction and they are all Tri-Ang.

The most interesting thing about them is that - dinky-little thatched-cottages apart - the tin-plate and wood suburban town-houses they were well known for seem to reflect the changes in architectural fashion from the first inter-war Deco styling, through the faux Arts-&-Craft, to the post war expansions and the simpler designs of the 1960's, houses which some of my mates' sisters had.

Also notable is the numbers of colours they used over the years, I was left (by the houses of my youth and most of those I've seen since) thinking they were usually cream with green woodwork, but blue, dark brown and black abound for detailing, while brickworks are also white, grey or yellow - among the soberer shades. If you know someone who collects dolls' houses, this is one of those 'once a decade' sales they really should try and attend.

Where some followers of this Blog may be more interested is in the tin-plate and vehicle section of the sale, some having animals as cargo, several toys have the wheeled animals we looked at here a while ago and indeed; there is at least one of the Noah's Arks in the same with a full complement of animals.

There are also wide ranges of the later, smaller Minic's, and even some lovely sets of the late plastic military ones, a few of which I covered here back at the beginning of the Blog eight or nine years ago, in fact - we looked at the log-wagon and crawler-tractor not that long ago.

It's not a sale for figure collectors, but it's a sale any other old toy collectors should be more than interested in, and everyone should be trying to get hold of a  catalogue.

Some of the other dates for forthcoming sales at SAS in the first half of 2018 include a figure-heavy sale the following week, two train auctions and a single-owner die-cast collection along with another vintage sale in June.