Vectis Auctions

Happiness is ... A Lakeland Bear!

A look at these magical bears in the November Vectis Teddy Bear Auction

In the auction on Tuesday 10th November there is a fine ramble of Lakeland Bears. Most of the group is part of the 'Cullercoats Collection' of over 500 teddy bears and related pieces.

Each Lakeland bear from this group was much loved with lives and friends of their own. Phillipa, Lot no.193 is dressed in a tweed skirt and one of the iconic knitted jumpers designed by the Lakeland Bear founder Wendy Phillips. She is accompanied by four enchanting files containing a huge quantity of correspondence and photographs, many are from her friend "Langdale", including holidays in the Lake District, regular letters, Christmas cards, post cards and original photographs. She was also featured in Issue 4 (Spring 1991) edition of Teddy Bear Times Magazine alongside another Lakeland Bear who lived in Norwich.

Phillipa returned several times a year to the Lakeland Bear shop and was joined by several other teds including Penelope, Wilfred and Pamela. Of one such visit Phillipa enthused "This year we all went to Ambleside to the new shop and got jumpers chosen from the collection hanging in the back of the shop. I chose blouse and new chord trousers. Penelope picked a yellow jumper with barn owls on and a red one with hedgehogs and a tweed skirt".

Phillipa and her growing band of friends enjoyed a wide friendship circle corresponding with several like-minded protectors. Wilfred, smartly dressed in blue chords and a sheep jumper had his own pen friend in 'Toddy Nelson from Germany who in his initial letter explained "I hope you can read her writing; she has never been near a typewriter. I had heard from 'Appleby Woods' that you are really anxious to hear from other Lakeland Bears especially living in other countries or further afield".

Each letter was filled with tales of adventures, alongside hand drawings, postcards, quotes, ink stamping and notations of gifts included for Easter, Halloween or Christmas. All these were painstakingly filed in date order with each bear having his own scrap file of letters. These will be accompanying the bears on the next stage of their journey.

We all love to have provenance with bears that come to live with us. A historical record such as these are a wonder to behold. These Lakeland Bears had already packed a lot into their lives but are ready to start a whole new set of adventures and perhaps help their new 'adoptive owner' make some new friends.

Also, in the sale is a large quantity of additional clothing (some original), in Lots 198 and 199 mainly in Lakeland bear scale to enable the bears to have an outfit for every occasion.

In addition to the Cullercoats Collection bears there are three additional Deans edition Lakeland Bears. These are entirely original and with clothing and accessories too.

Lakeland Bears were the brain child of Wendy Phillips, a knitwear designer who initially used the bears as props for her creations. After repeated request to sell the bears too ‘Lakeland Bears’ were born. They were all meticulously attired in pure wool skirts, trousers or dungarees, Fair Isle knitwear care of Wendy in a variety of colours and designs, caps, socks and handmade north country clogs. Accessories, reproduced to scale included rucksacks, walking sticks, climbing ropes and hooks which gave each bear its own individual character.

The Lakeland Bears will be sold in the Teddy Bear Auction at Vectis on Tuesday November the 10th.

For more information please contact Joanne McDonald on +44 (0) 1642 750616 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Vectis and Middlesbrough Football Club, a Winning Partnership!

We are proud to announce that Vectis and Vectis Collectables has partnered with Championship Football Club Middlesbrough for the season by sponsoring one of the first team players, Anfernee Dijksteel.

The Netherlands Under 20’s player joined Boro from Charlton Athletic in August 2019, becoming the fourth signing of that summer.

This is not the first time The Hambleton Group have partnered the local football club. The group (who owned Heritage Hampers at the time) was the Middlesbrough Club Sponsor for the 1988 – 1989 season and had the honour of not only having their logo on the club shirts but being awarded a Guinness World Record. In early part of 1989, Heritage Hampers received a letter from the Guinness Book of Records declaring that at a size of 23,228 sq. ft, the freshly painted hoarding was indeed the largest in the world!

We are confident that Anfernee will also leave a great lasting impression.

Click here to see the Player Sponsorship

The Specialist sale held on the 22^nd of October started with The Californian Collection, a nice selection of Dinky vehicles, Trade packs, Sets and accessories, plus catalogues and promotional ephemera, Pre-War, French Dinky and rare variations. The sale continued with a Dinky Ex-Shop Stock Collection, 18 lots of Dinky aircraft, ships, military and space vehicles. Plus, The Matchbox Code 2 Collection, featuring 47 lots of Matchbox Models of Yesteryear mixed code 2 groups, and a Private Owner Collection included road, racing, rally cars and Dioramas from manufacturers such as Vanguards, Minichamps, Spark (Minimax), Remember Models, SMTS Model, Schuco and many others. Further items included Dinky Pre-War, cars, commercials, emergency vehicles and military; Corgi, Triang Spot-On, Matchbox Superfast, and Regular Wheels, Minichamps, Revell, plus decal sheets, groups of White Metal parts and advertising literature.

Looking at Chad Valley Fire Vehicles in the Vectis Sale

The Mike Linham Fire Engine Collection is a fantastic array of vehicles from many of the major manufacturers. If includes several versions form the leading British tinplate toy producer Chad Valley.

With all toy and model makers, the inspiration to manufacture a particular item has to come from somewhere! As many of the people who were involved in the creation of our classic toys are no longer with us, we can but speculate on what sparked their imagination.

With Chad Valley, the inspiration could have come from the view from the factory windows - the nearby “classic” Fire Station built for the City of Birmingham. The gleaming fire engines turning out to fires would have been extremely impressive. Chad Valley’s factory was in Harborne, a suburb of Birmingham, located next to the Public Works Depot and the Fire Station. Today the site houses a very modern high security Police Station and residential properties.

It is thought that Chad Valley produced two engine versions and a fire jeep. Both of the Fire Engine versions will be offered in the sale.

Both items are “classics” and followed the “trends” in the toy industry at that time. Pre Second World War “constructor cars” were available from most of the larger makers. Meccano and Marklin possibly being the more notable. Chad Valley’s constructor range called “Ubilda” included a simple open fire engine of a classic “Braidwood” body style carrying a wheeled escape ladder in approx 1/32^nd scale. This item is powered by a simple clockwork motor and was loosely based on either a Leyland or Dennis chassis of the period. It would have undoubtedly borne some resemblance to the fire engines that operated out of the adjacent Fire Station at the time of manufacture.

The other fire engine Chad Valley produced was after the Second World War and this was in their diecast range called “Wee-kin” Series. This was loosely modelled on a Dodge, with the body having a style more associated with the United States of America rather than those seen locally. The body was designed to fit the standard chassis which was used for various commercials such as tankers, tower wagons, dustbin lorries etc. This solid toy in approx 1/60^th scale, had a ladder which was pivoted at the rear, allowing it to be raised and like its tinplate predecessor had powerful clockwork motor. The number plate carries the registration ‘CV 1949’ which indicates the date of initial manufacture.

Both these items are now difficult to find and are sure to arouse interest on Tuesday 20^th October when sold.

To view the full catalogue, click here THE MIKE LINHAM FIRE ENGINE COLLECTION

For more information please contact Dave Bowers on +44 (0) 1642 7506160 or email

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The Model Train sale held on the 23^rd of October started with OO Gauge British Outline including part 2 of a Single Owner Collection; HO & American Outline, N Gauge and Hornby Dublo 2- & 3-rail. The sale continued with Wrenn, Triang and Triang Minic Motorway and OO Gauge Trix/Liliput, Brass and Exley OO/HO Kits/Kitbuilt. The sale also included Meccano & Other Constructional Toys, Live Steam, Gauge 1 & Larger, G Gauge, and Hornby, further and modern O Gauge. The sale concluded with Books, Magazines, Catalogues, Railwayana/Railway Photographs, Pictures & Prints and our usual good selection of General Trains