Military, Civilian Figures, Equipment & Accessories

With 995 lots, the Military, Civilian Figures, Equipment & Accessories sale held on the 28th of August at Vectis Auctions Thornaby was anticipated to take slightly longer than normal and so the start time was brought forward to 10am. What wasn’t anticipated however was that the sheer amount of bidding would mean that the sale lasted almost a solid seven hours and achieved a fantastic £203,000 (including Buyers premiums). Some amazing stories, from loft finds to salvaged artwork, have led to exceptional and probable world record prices.

Lot 4949 was the star of the auction; the Britains 1st Bombay Lancers set 66 came to Vectis after an email enquiry regarding the discovery of three Britains sets in a loft the finder was interested to see if they might be worth auctioning. They clearly were, as two made right on estimate and this complete and rare set achieved a fantastic £13,200, (inclusive of Buyers Premiums) exceeding all expectations.

The Britains Racing Colours series also achieved some outstanding results, in fact probable World Record prices. Previously the only known examples to sell over £1,000 mark were the famous Duchess of Norfolk “Mickey Mouse” colours. Racing Colours could be commissioned directly from Britains in any officially sanctioned owners’ colours for customers who wished to create their own exclusive examples, and as such some were only ever painted in very small numbers. In this exceptional sale five Lots achieved over four figure hammer prices. Lot 4621 a pre-war model of the Earl of Ellesmere Colours achieved £1,560, whilst lot 4626 in the Colours of Lt Cmdr E.W.B Leake, an extremely rare model from 1936, achieved £1,680.

A keen eye & being in the right place at the right time is the story behind the next impressive collection, in 1981 the iconic manufacturer of plastic construction kits: Airfix was saved from extinction by the U.S. owned Palitoy [General Mills] company. As part of a company-wide rationalisation exercise Airfix’s Haldane Place facility was closed & many of the remaining assets disposed of including many of the iconic original boxtop artwork illustrations, the majority created by the gifted artist Roy Cross. A chance visit by a Vendor to the Airfix Drawing Office to meet a colleague during the closing of the site was rewarded when he saw bundles of artwork being dumped in a skip, by being told “if he liked the look of anything to help himself”! The result of this lucky visit [which saved some iconic images from landfill] formed a major part of the “Original Airfix Artwork” section of this sale; these examples along with others from the Artist himself achieved some incredible prices. Airfix generally paid artists around £200 - £400 for a finished painting commission, Lot 4574, the Graf Spee [Series 4 Famous Warships Range], realised £10,200 and Lot 4560: Series 3 Aircraft Range - De-Havilland Heron II, an Iconic Airfix Image, achieved £4,800. Vectis is also currently working with Airfix [Hornby Ltd] by supplying HD images of surviving artwork for the Airfix Archives.

It is not known how many original Airfix images are still in existence, as reported above a great many were dumped, however if you are one of those lucky people with “rescued” artwork please get in touch with Simon Clark – Vectis Military Consultant, and you may be in for a pleasant surprise!