The John Gurney Collection

The John Gurney Collection is a fantastic collection of mainly white metal items which have been collected over many years. Day one features Dinky, Corgi, Matchbox, Franklin and Danbury Mint and day two includes Gems & Cobwebs, Milestone, Brooklin and Minimarque.

All of the lots on offer are boxed and each day features over 600 lots.

Some particularly nice examples from the collection include Daimler and Jaguar models, racing cars from the 1930s to early 1990s and a “Rob Eddie” by Brooklin. The collection also includes a large quantity of police cars and TV & Film related items including The Saint.

“John was interested in collecting from an early age. At 7 years old he was on first name terms with his local toy shop manager. His younger brother would accompany him to the shop, on a weekly basis, where John would pay off for the latest model in instalments. He had been bitten by the collecting bug. This was the start of a lifelong collection and the delivery of an awful lot of parcels!

John’s mum would buy him and his brother identical cars. John would put his away and have the enjoyment of playing with his younger brothers’.

John enjoyed mooching around toy fairs looking for unusual and limited edition models to add to his collection. He would often come home with a carrier bag and a big smile on his face. He would then disappear into the lofts (he had two) which were his man caves.

John took pride in his cars and some only came out for inspection on purchase. They then got stashed away in his Aladdin’s cave. Ann, John’s wife was very tolerant and on seeing yet another parcel her eyes would roll although there were a good few that were sneaked past her. Despite this they were happily married for 57 years.

John made many friends through his love of collecting. He was well known within the circle of dealers which no doubt improved his collection enormously!

In fact, John was an avid collector of most things: trains, comics, “lost” hub caps and anything to do with Wallace and Gromit. He was one of life’s magpies!

We, his family, hope the models find good homes and will be treasured as much as they were by John.”