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bird's eye view by the hawk

20th March 1997, Page 31
20th March 1997
Page 31
Page 31, 20th March 1997 — bird's eye view by the hawk
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Toy story

We all remember going to the toyshop with Saturday's precious half-crown of pocket money sharing pocket space with a piece of used chewing gum and a home-made catapult. Once in the toyshop, under the watchful eye of the brown-coated proprietor, we made straight for the Dinky Toy counter. After all agony of indecision we would choose just one vehicle to add to a burgeoning collection of miniature trucks and cars—leaving enough change for a quarter of peardrops, a bottle of Corona and both The Dandy and the Beano. Those were the days, indeed. But what did we do when we switched to long trousers? Gave all our beloved Dinky Toys to the Scouts' jumble and spent our pocket money on Player's Weights instead. What fools we were! At a Sotheby's auction in Sussex this week, pristine examples of Dinky Toys are fetching hundreds of pounds apiece. Auctioneer Heather Michaels says the prize contenders are a Pickfords van in mint condition dated 1934/5 which should remove up to £600 and a rare 1935 Palethorpes sausage delivery van, which, because of its imperfect conchtion, will fetch slightly less. I would be happy with the one-lot collection of four flat-bed lorries, complete with original boxes consisting of two four-tonne Guy trucks (one grey, one brown); Back on the rails 0 'm not sure what's going on here; it looks suspiciousiy like a mail robbery in progress. However, I am reliably informed that, while 13,000 changed hands, this picture actually depicts the winner of the 1997 Scania Transport Trust Award& The £3,000 was the prize money won by the Great Western Society of Oxford which restored this 1940 Post Office rail van and rebuilt its mail pick-up equipment. It led a field of 300 entrants. The two runners-up were the Swordfish Heritage Trust, Yeovilton, which restored a Fairey Swordfish bi-plane (for which it received .f2,000), and the Brooklands Museum, Weybridge, which pocketed £1,000 for restoring to display condition a salvaged Wellington bomber. The winners will be invited to Scania's transport museum in Sweden.


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