C is for C&T Auctions - Forthcoming 12th December 'James Opie' Sale - Press Release

JAMES OPIE AT C & T AUCTIONEERS

FINE TOY SOLDIER AND FIGURE SALE

WEDNESDAY 12 DECEMBER 2018 – TUNBRIDGE WELLS

Catalogues available two weeks before the sale – all lots are showing on www.the-saleroom.com

 

Featuring:

·         The Derek Goldberg Skybirds collection

·         Collection of the late Pat Campbell, Part II including the Delhi Durbar

·         Collection of the late Arthur Smith including CJB inter war Vehicles

Britains Figures:

Ancient Britains: OVER SIXTY FIRST OR SECOND VERSION SETS 1, Life Guards, 67, 1st Madras Native Infantry, 17, Somerset Light Infantry, 144 Royal Field Artillery, 105 Imperial Yeomanry, 108 6^th Dragoons, 160, Territorial Infantry, 83, Middlesex Yeomanry, 147, Zulus, 38, Dr Jameson in original named box, 6, Boer Cavalry, 96 Omdurman 21^st Lancers and 101 Life Guards in Blue

Golden Age: RARE set 1394, Card Fortress with soldiers, sets 1321, Armoured Car, 313 Royal Regiment of Artillery, Famous Regiments 1559 Lancashire Fusiliers, 218 Spanish Cavalry, 92 Spanish Infantry, 1436 Italian Infantry, Colonial Service Dress, 433 RAF Monoplane, 199 Motor Machine Gun Corps, 200 Motor Cycle Corps dispatch riders, 96 York and Lancaster Regiment,  RARE sets 253, Welsh Guards, 247, Arabs and 252, British Indian Army in original boxes etc.

Lot 100

Britains Postwar: Knights of Agincourt, Black Watch Band, 2110, US Military Band, Picture Packs, RHA, Royal Marines, Underslung Lorry, 1544 Australian Infantry, Canadian troops, Band of the Berkshire Regiment etc. Altogether more than 380 hollowcast sets, with 272 original boxes.

Civilians: Britains RARE Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Set 1654 in original box, Britains Railwaymen, Circus, Wagons etc. Taylor and Barrett Elephant Ride, Aircraft and ARP Stretcher etc.

Plastic toy soldiers: Britains Eyes Right, Johnnie Walker, Cherilea movable Crusaders etc.

Continental figures: Heyde Arctic Exploration, Arab African Caravan, battles of Aduwa and Izonzo, Railway figures and passengers, gauge 1, Heinrich Highland Band, 90mm Polo and Hunt figures, early CBG Mignot, green bases, Dragoons, Artillery, Napoleonic and Lucotte. Figur Semi-flats, Miniature and Flat figures. Heinrichsen boxed Fontenoy set and thirty-two other sets, Elastolin, Vertunni, Noris large scale Foot Guard etc.

Courtenay: named Medieval Knights, unsigned.

Models: WWI 4.7 inch Gun, apprentice grade engineering model 1/24 scale.

New Toy Soldiers: Marlborough Delhi Durbar, Toy Army Workshop, Army Supply Co. etc.

The conversions of Freddie Green: Types of the Victorian Cavalry, Russian Tsarist Infantry, and Norfolk and West Kent Regiments at attention with mounted officer and colours.

2019 SALE DATES: WEDNESDAYS 27 MARCH, 19 JUNE AND 11 DECEMBER

Contacts:

James Opie

Toy Soldier Consultant:

Tel. +44 (0) 20 7794 7447

E-mail jamesopie@yahoo.co.uk

Web site www.james-opie.co.uk     

C&T Auctioneers:

Web site www.candtauctions.co.uk

Unit 4 High House Business Park, Kenardington, Nr Ashford, Kent TN26 2LF

Catalogues and Bids

Tel. (three lines) +44 (0) 1233 510050

E-mail enquiries@candtauctions.co.uk

The Sale will take place at:

The Spa Hotel (The Yorke Suite),

Mount Ephraim,

Royal Tunbridge Wells,

Kent

TN4 8XJ

UK

                                                              

Sale commences at 10.00 a.m. Viewing from 8.30 throughout the day of the sale.

F is for Flocking Flocked the Hell Out of 'Em!

Picked these-up the other day, charity shop, 30p, couple of Santa Claus cake decorations or snow-globe figures converted/re-purposed into novelty earrings, I may remove the rings and stick them with the other Santa's or chuck them in the minor-makes boxes under C for Clair's.

The odd thing about them is that they have been flocked, but the flocking material is a semi-transparent (or originally; totally transparent) filament, which has been applied over the painted decoration, giving them a overall whitish 'halo' and making them look old and faded, even when brand new!

And to misquote a Christmas Dawn French; they're not Claire's, They're mine!

I added this just 'cos it was hangin' around! 50p from a charity shop in Basingrad, I was regretting buying it as she racked it up; in the glare of the spot-light over the till it looked a lot rougher than it did in a basket of baubles in a dark corner of the store!

But it cleaned-up OK, and I've since threaded it with a silver-flecked, fabric loop and it looks fine, it's a naff, polypropylene thing and it's still not brilliant, but the stricture is lowered for the themes, and with both bears and drums being themes on the tree, it manages to tick two boxes!

I've also removed the CHINA sticker, which bears a more than passing resemblance to those old Hong Kong stickers on HCF (and other touristy) imports, which may be a clue as to origin (but doesn't help without a name) or just a habit several manufacturers - or a shipper handling several manufacturers - adopted for novelty stuff?

M is for More Shelfies

And more from TKMaxx, but then the shop I avoided for years thinking it only had clothes (!) is one of few sources for toys and novelties these days, corner shops are all franchised chains with a bland selection of small, pocket money toys (Martins/McColl's are still carrying that set of HGL 'Armymen' two years later).

WHSmith have almost stopped toys, even at Christmas, and while some people are picking-up from the Toysaurus's death, they only carry the same 'big name' stuff, it's only really The Works, Poundland and TKMaxx where the odd interesting thing turns up, with Paperchase and Tiger . . . sorry; Flying Tiger for the odd novelty eraser or something! The end of humanity will be bland and homogenous!

Anyway, a few more shelfies from Oct . . . no; these were taken in September! The stuff really has been piling-up this year.

I hadn't encountered Ania before, by Tomy, but then I probably wasn't paying attention on the animal forums! So I took a few shots to give a full flavour of the beast . . . s! In stock on the day were all aquatic subjects, with an ocean going dinosaur, killer whales and sea lions.

The Plesiosaur has a novelty element with articulated head, neck and shoulder sections (but then so did Britains crocodile, late giraffe and others), while the killer whales were a bit small and none seem to be in-scale with the others.

The sea lions looked as good as anything from Papo or Schleich with beautifully painted-in whiskers. I feel there should be a Beatles joke here, but they are neither walruses nor - indeed - carpenters! Tomy's Ania - if you collect animals, look out for them; they look nice!

News, Views Etc . . . Airfix Motorcyclists

I've added three Airfix motorcyclists to the new page, started the other day, which I picked-up on feeBay last week, I've put the machines away, I'll dig them out later and pose the figures astride their steel steeds, but for now it's just a three-angle view of the same pose . . . and the original image from this Blog might as well go over there as well.

C is for C&T Auctions - Forthcoming 12th December 'James Opie' Sale - Catalogue

Just a quick reminder that the catalogue for next Wednesday's sale is now available; ring +44 (0) 1233 510050, it is also available to be viewed online in either of two formats at the other ends of the below links.

===============================

 

James Opie’s Pre-Auction Newsletter No. 10

 

Sale is on Wednesday 12^th December 2018 10.00 a.m.

Dear Collector,

My 10th C & T Auction, now online, is a full 600 lots with no gaps! It is now available, including nearly all the pictures, on www.the-saleroom.com. As usual we are also offering an online ‘flick-through’ version of the catalogue on the C & T website www.candtauctions.co.uk. This gives you easy access to the additional information included in the hard copy catalogue that doesn’t show up online on the auction site. Just go to the C & T website and click on “latest catalogues”.

There are 2,780 photographs, showing more than 14,200 items in the 600 lots. There are no gaps, but the subject sections are a little more complicated than usual, as I had to full some subjects into more than one position, and I wanted to keep the Arthur Smith collection together.

CONTENTS OF THE 600 LOT SALE:                                                                      

Britains and British Hollowcast Toy Soldiers:                                                                              

Early, pre-1918 (1 to 49, 160 to 175 and 382) 66 lots

Golden Age 1919-1941 (37 to 124, 176 to 204 and 477 to 499) 216 lots

Twilight of Hollowcast 1945-1966(122 to 202, 560 to 577 and 4 others) 67 lots

Britains New and other toy soldiers (250 to 299 and nine others) 59 lots

Britains and other Civilian figures (300 to 351 and 384) 52 lots

CJB Vehicles (Lots 361 to 365) 5 lots

French and German Toy Soldiers (381, 386 to 469 and 472 to 476) 90 lots

Courtenay Medieval Models (357 and 470 to 471) 3 lots

Military Models (Lots 500 to 504) 5 lots

Skybird (Lots 505 to 559) 55 lots

Plastic Toy Soldiers and Figures (371 to 377 and 578 to 600) 30 lots

As usual, the hard copy catalogue is also available online. The best way to look at the highlights of the sale is to take particular note of those lots I have chosen to illustrate, which in my opinion are the most interesting. Some of the many highlights are on the outside and inside of the cover at the front and back. 

Remember that you can bid online via the Saleroom.com (3% + VAT extra for this service), or you can place bids by telephone, e-mail or by the form in the back of the catalogue (please check to ensure they have been received) +44 (0) 1233 510050. You can also order hard copy catalogues on this number. The dollar continues to be at an advantageous exchange rate.

PLEASE do not send bids to my email addresses on the day before or the day of the sale, as I will not be able to transfer them.  Send instead to enquiries@candtauctions.co.uk, and the bids will be entered. Any queries about the content can be answered at my normal email jamesopie@yahoo.co.uk, or on my ‘phone: +44 (0) 20 7794 7447 (except day before and day of sale).

This catalogue features

THE COLLECTION OF THE LATE ARTHUR SMITH    Arthur was a Fellow of the BMSS, a keen modeller, painter and collector.

Lots 318 to 381 and 386 to 392

(Article re. CJB on SSW last week).

THE COLLECTION OF THE LATE PAT CAMPBELL part II, including the DELHI DURBAR

Lots 261 to 299

(Article on SSW last week).

THE DEREK GOLDBERG SKYBIRD COLLECTION 

Lots 505 to 55

 (Article and Highlights on SSW previously and last week).

SALE HIGHLIGHTS

Now to come to the highlights of this sale. In hollowcast Britains, the early section is yet larger than in the last catalogue, and there are some more gems, such as a complete blue jacketed mounted Band of the Life Guards, boxed rocking horse Omdurman 21^st Lancers and Middlesex Yeomanry, and a boxed Dr Jameson and the African Mounted Infantry.

Lot 23

Apart from 66 lots of early Britains, in this sale there are 216 lots of Britains manufactured between the wars, from four substantial collections. A number of rare items are included here also, starting with lot 88, the Welsh Guards. As the Welsh Guards were only formed in 1915, there weren’t any pre-war sets by Britains, and they only did their first issue of them in 1927, in one of the small two row display sets they were trying out at the time. Perhaps because they were a non-standard set and a bit more expensive, they were unpopular and didn’t feature in many collections. They are also somewhat difficult to spot if not in their box, as Britains seemed to be in some doubt as to how to paint them. Apart from the regular white plume with a green horizontal stripe in the centre, I have also seen them with a red plume on the left hand side, which would be the same as the not yet issued Canadian Governor General’s Foot Guards. In the set we have here, the only one I have yet come across in an original box, the plume has the green stripe of the plume left off, so they seem as though they are Grenadiers!  The figure count and type is right, however.

C is for Cute Christmas Cat Card Collage

Or M is for Meowy Christmas . . . and a Happy New Purr! OK, so the moto was crap, but the card is too cool for a card school! I bought this in Clinton's last year, and so far they have nothing like it this year?

It goes in the card flats! No it doesn't, it went-off to someone-else twelve-months ago, but mawkish sentiments apart, it was a lovely little thing and seemed to work from most angles. I think they've got nine cats in there and no stinky dogs!

YES they DO! I used to do house-clearance and drain-downs for a property maintenance outfit, and you could tell a house that had had a dog in it as soon as you opened the door, cats were only revealed when you studied any carpets left and found the fine mist of hairs, or the claw-damage to wallpaper at an 'I want this door opened now' height! I loved our dogs when we were kids, but they both stank!

F is for From Nutcrackers to Christmas Crackers

So there was I, on one of the hottest days of July, if not the whole summer, pulling twenty-four Christmas crackers with myself, as you do . . . n't! The final hours of Poundworld Plus brought with them a Brucey-Bonus for the novelty-tat arm of the collection!

I'd already had some smaller 'tree' ones, when these were reduced from 50p a box to 25p per box, which - if you recall the other posts at the time (June/July) - was further reduced at the till by whatever had been sent to the computer by head-office or the Official Receivers that morning - suffice to say I got silver back from my grubby quid!

Bog-standard fare - die-cut, stiff-card construction, simple CAD design in positive and negative silver/white colour-ways, six per pack gave me the aforementioned 24-crackers to deal with, and I wasn't waiting 'till now!

First disappointment was no Matchbox knock-off soldiers! Each box had one micro-plane, one hair tie, one 'tiddlywink' frog and one very thin, styrene ring, with two from a top, a spinner or a fake nail. Most of the things in the 'Image for illustration purposes only' picture are of better quality than those actually included but isn't that always the way!

The 'tree' crackers; I don't seem to have photographed the contents, if I find them in the increasing chaos of the 'bringing together' before Xmas I'll try to, but memory serves they were as crap as the bigger ones and relatively similar. Except they were only four per tray, and two of them - per set - had the [same] card-puzzle (like Kinder's) or bookmark, leaving me with only a few bits of polymer shite!

I didn't get the fortune-telling fish, the trumpet or the magic calculator! Both sets were imported by ITP, with the tree-crackers further known to have been manufactured by [PT] Cermai Makmur of Indonesia, so you might find these in KMart . . . now! It's all-right - I buy this shit so you don't have to!

W is for Well, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Not so much a follow-up as a return-to or more of an annual glance-at?

I said I wouldn't subject you to the Basingrad statues, not least because they are all over the place and I can't be arsed to look for them; it may be the season of goodwill to all men but I'll be damned if I'm going to troll round Basingstoke looking for something you probably don't want to see, and saw last year anyway!

But I didn't say I wouldn't subject you to a few nutcrackers, just for the hell of it, and worse, having got the 'Fleet' day out of the stack, today we're clearing the miscellaneous 'Proper Crimbo' odds'n'sods from the queue!

This (on the right) was the 49th toy-scan of January (I'm up to 87 already [Sun. 2nd] for December, mostly archive stuff) and was an impulse-buy in the Paperchase January Sales (probably the only one!), relief stickers; you know; those foam-filled squidgy things, and at 20p or something I thought they were worth a punt . . . I'm not so sure now, but they've helped make the post! They go with the flats! 20mm!

The full force of TKMaxx's 'large' size, nutcracker display on the 23rd October; they were still putting other stuff out as I shot their morning's work! I was over there on Saturday of the week just gone and it's all a bit chaotic now as that 'bit' of Christmas is wound-down to make way for the edibles, bathroom gift sets, novelty socks and etcetera, and then it'll be January Sale stuff!

Brian Burke took these at the start of November in - you won't be surprised to hear, from the graphics - the gift shop of Cornell University! I'm not sure if I should be impressed by the marketing application, or mildly depressed by the inherent naff'ness? But many thanks to Brian for sending them, and they are rather smart in the red and white 'team colours', maybe the teams should be made to play a game dressed as nutcrackers, against a similarly attired opposition . . . or snowmen!

. . . I don't follow American Football, but that's a game I'd kill to see! They could all have giant foam crowns and shoulder-pads along with those big boots from Jeux Sans Frontières. In fact, we should have a 10-a-side with the Premier League's mascots!

I used to find these faintly sinister as a kid (like that awful shelf-elf - he's still as sinister as hell's gates), but they seem to be growing on me in old age; now I know the protective nature of their mythology.

That's Crimbo nutcrackers, for 2018!

News, Views Etc . . . Jason Stieva's Pirate Ship ++

What can you spot? I saw the purple chap from Monsters Inc. straight away! Rack-toy tank turrets, a Marx cavalryman (?), some of those Tomy Battle Beasts, Papo and Schlich, knights . . . all sorts!

https://mymodernmet.com/jason-stieva-ghost-pirate-ship/?fbclid=IwAR1kTaht-l8DANC6ndW_AALhU1RmZrulOxgBiSUQVRKkBP0a7yXQlTnmWX0



Meanwhile, fans of new poured-metal might be interested in the news that Fleurbaix have a Faceplant page.

https://www.facebook.com/fleurbaixtoysoldiers/



Brian Berke sent the next link, I was going to hold it for a Lego-only News-Views, but there's so much in the pipeline, that may not be 'till after Christmas, and this is fun scrolling for when the in-laws are driving you mad in a couple of weeks (20 sleeps or something 'till the big day!) so it can go here . . .

http://toronto.transitbricks.com/torontos-forgotten-horsecars/ 

D is for Don't Talk Like a Pirate

That would be silly and juvenile! We are only to talk like a pirate once a year, but as I had announced a pirate ship last Christmas (followed-up by Peter Evans' actual vessel in February) and saw this, I thought it would be remiss of me not to announce another this Christmas!

Currently in TKMaxx and manufactured by Tai Sang's 'Redbox', the figures are a bit big and 'mere' action-figures but the ship is perfect for a small man-o'war and would suit 54mm figures as the Poundworld one last year was better suited to smaller scales, quite the Navy! Although this is a larger vessel still, and I didn't get to play with it, so don’t know what the electronic . . . oh! It's written on the box!

Another angle, the steps are out of scale and a bit steep, but you'd get a good complement of crew on the deck and officers on the quarter-deck. It's more Playmobil than last year's, and would need some work, but if you are interested it's around, now; 20-quid!

Also in TKMaxx, another pirate! Although this one only gets seen at Christmas, lives in a tree and has the look of that dopey dog (Droopy?) from Hanna Barbera!

H is for Heads Up - RM Toys 2019 Toy Fair Dates

The RM Toys Ltd., 2019 dates for Kempton Park toy fair are now out.

Sunday 3rd February

Sunday 19th May

Sunday 13th October

Sunday 1st December

S is for Shoot of Shelfies

I don't know what the collective noun is for Shelfies, but as it seems the term was invented here at Small Scale World (albeit only as a construct of 'Shelf' and 'Selfie'!), I think it's reasonable to assume Small Scale World can declare the collective, so it's 'Shoot'!

A few photographs taken mostly in October and designed more to ID figures in future mixed lots, but a couple of more stand alone items too;

Taken on the 12 October in TKMaxx these Halsall Toys International imports (probably from Pioneer) have a figure each in all the double sets, there's a couple more below, and I've since (30th Nov.) seen another police pose and farm sets with one-each of two figures along with a pair of animals (cow and sheep), which I forgot to take pictures of.

Majorette don't offer a human figure, but do include a nice selection of animals in this farm play-set. Around 1:64th, but with the tractors hopelessly out of scale with the pick-up truck, some of this stuff would be useful for railway modellers.

Shot the same day is this toob of dinosaurs, which I shot just to get a 'name' for some of my unknowns which I recognised behind the 'glass', however it's not clear, they are credited/branded to NBC Apparel, care-of a TJX Processing Centre (which I assume is TK / TJMaxx) and manufactured by Fast Champ Industries (or 'industrial') Ltd, of TST East, Hong Kong - which is the one I'll use.

A Trip back to TKMaxx on the twenty-third of October found this from NJCroce with two of their bendy Bat-blokes and a car. But the car is a non-moving display, so utterly useless for kids, yet not of sufficient quality to make a decent display model, being a pretty-cheap moulding in styrene or propylene.

The 28th of month saw this arrive in my inbox from Mr. Berke over in New York, and from a store apparently called Ocean State (Job Lot?), again the aim to to ID the construction workers/mechanics as they come-in, in the future.

Brian was eMailing again two days later with this toob set of armymen, can't see a branding, but there is a TJMaxx price-label and I think we've seen these as generics on one or two occasions in the last two or three years, so probably just new packaging for Christmas? But there is a 100 of them!

I myself was back at TKMaxx on the 11th of last month where I shot a couple more of the HTI sets, in both cases there is a one-colour paint highlight; a black walkie-talkie and a blue stretcher bundle.

TKM seem to have a high turnover, so if you want to purchase this stuff you need to be quick or try more than one outlet, but at this time of year their home furnishing subsidiary also carries an enlarged toy section. I'll wait until they appear in mixed bags from charity shops or 50p trays at Sandown Park!

I went in again on Saturday and caught this set of rather nice Marvel Avengers' figures in the 70mm bracket (?) from Jakks Pacific, a big over-muscled maybe, but not as bad as a set of cartoon-deform Avengers (or Junior Avengers?) I saw in the Phidal display!

Bigsheephornsman!