On holidays in South Africa I happened to come across a nice little toy museum in the wonderful place of Stellenbosch, not far East of Kaapstad. Among the items on display also a nice medium size Dinky Toys collection, the 'Limpie Basson Versameling'.
Just some image impressions for you:
Kind regards, Jan
Hello Jan,
Stellenbosh is a wonderful area!!
It reminds me, in the late eighties, there was a Meccano Museum within the Gold Reef City, in Johannesburg, with lots of Dinkies and Meccano's models...I am wondering if it still exists...
Cordially,
Jacques H.
Jan--Thanks for sharing! A very interesting place you found, with a decent collection of Dinky's to view. Amazing what you find far from home, and Dinky's were certainly international. And Jan, I wanted to wish you a Merry Christmas.....hope retirement is suiting you well!
Terry
Yesterday I visited The Gallery Brummen (prov. of Gelderland, NL) for the first time. It is a very nice combination of a big classic cars exhibition (all for sale, 2 floors and some parked outside) and the Toy Gallery (in the loft). http://www.thegallerybrummen.nl.
Taking photographs is allowed, so I can give you a quick photographic impression (as far as some Dinky Toys related items are concerned):
Jaguar XK 120.
Packard Convertible.
MG Midget.
SS Jaguar.
Some Dinky Toys display impressions:
And of course many other toys (above), of which I happen to have the wooden horse and cart, made about 1940:
Admission for the always changing classic cars sale exhibition is free, the Toy Gallery 5 euro. Best regards, Jan
I just found this website of the Brighton Toy & Model Museum. It looks great and may have been updated because of their 25th anniversary this year. I remember having visited this nice museum in 1998. As a tiny souvenir I bought the original Dinky Telegraph Messenger below in the Museum Shop.
The website:
http://www.brightontoymuseum.co.uk/info/Main_Page
By the way: we should add more links like this one to the LINKS!
Kind regards, Jan
Hello Friends,
Reading this topic I have to inform you that the Gallery Toy museum has closed the doors. Not clear what will happen, but intention is to restart at another location. A short history. The toy museum started in Terschuur were a small display was created. When the Gallery started in Brummen, a antique car dealer, the Toy museum moved to the second floor. Henk Brouwer, a vivid Meccano collector, built a old toy shop inside to exhibit part of his huge collection. Later he donated a lot of rare Meccano items to the museum. At the opening there was a special Dinky exhibition with many models, however a great deal was repaint. Nevertheless the small museum had nice exhibitions from time to time. Hope it will open again as the beautiful showcases, presenting a old toy shop deserve a good home as a tribute to my late friend Henk Brouwer from Famous toys.
John.
Last week I rediscovered a folder on my harddisk containing photos of 'Dinky Toys Museum 't Schouwtje' in Haarlem (NL). The owner, Pieter Soellaart, was an old Dinky-friend of mine, until he died rather suddenly and far too early in 2007. The museum (well, not publicly accessible) disappeared and even his closest friends do not exactly know what happened to the collection after an unknown heir became the new owner. Last Saturday, at the Houten fair, I spoke to Bart van den Acker, a close friend of Pieter's, who took a lot of photos of the collection, not long before Pieter died. These are the photos I rediscovered and which Bart sent to me many years ago. Bart had no objection at all to me posting a selection of his photos on the website. So, after all these years, we have the opportunity to enjoy the 'Schouwtje' collection with a much wider audience than Pieter would ever have imagined. So, in his honour, a random selection of the pleasant photos below.
By the way, Pieter's Spot-On collection was sublime too. Many cabinets full of spot-on Spot-On models! But this is a Dinky place ... Kind regards, Jan
Wow. Stunning! Thanks for posting Jan.
Until now, I hadn't realised that the Car Trailer could be loaded by driving the Car Transporter up to it.........
Regards
Mark
Jan,
Thanks for these pictures. This collection inspired me to start collecting pre war models. I visited Pieter a few times at his home and admired the colorfull models and boxes he had. As you well know Pieter made annuals were he wrote down his adventures hunting models. A real joy to read and also a lot of information on Dinkys.
I bought one spare item from him, the pre war Filling station, and it is still in my collection. So it brings some memories back.
John.
Yes, John, you remember well, no doubt! I visited him many, many times, as my roots are in Haarlem too, always leaving very late at night after long discussions and watching his cherished collections. In fact Pieter's annual reports inspired me to provide my annual catalogue supplements with an introduction reporting about the 'collecting adventures' of the previous year. Kind regards, Jan
Wonderful Jan, and thanks for sharing with us.....so many wonderful Dinky’s to see, many rare and hard to find colors. What a treat that you were a frequent visitor to see those!
Best regards, Terry
Two pictures taken at the Arromanches memoial museum. Arromanches is also known as Port Winston. It is the harbour that was build in England and floated to France a few days after D day. When in full operation, this harbour was the world first harbour in tonnage. It was used until the harbour of Antwerp had been taken back from the Germans.
The model was made in England by Bassett and Lowke and offered to the museum. The Dinky Toys are what was available in the mid 50's. I am not a specialist in British military vehicle but I think that none of the real trucks in this model had been build before D day.
This museum is well worth a visit although the light in it is very poor, please excuse the bad pictures.
Photo Jacques Dujardin summer 2019.
Jacques. Beautiful photos of the miniatures of a very important part of a harbour in the conclusion of the Normandy invasion. Of the miniature army vehicles I think only the Jeep and the Halftrack was in use by the US army in those days, similar to model 80B and 822, but of course only reproduced after WWII in the late 50's.
Jan Oldenhuis, 26 October 2021
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Dinky 582/982 Pullmore - Dark Blue Cab/Dark Blue Body
DTCAwebsite upgrade 2023
--33 Mechanical Horse and Five Assorted Trailers
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186 Mercedes 220 SE
186 Mercedes 220 SE
--14a and 400 B.E.V. Electric Truck (1948-60)
--33 Mechanical Horse and Five Assorted Trailers
--25m and 410 Bedford End Tipper (1948-63)
--25m and 410 Bedford End Tipper (1948-63)
Trailer Caravans
Austin Van 470
Meccano Liverpool pricelist French F.A.S. Tarif Exportation 1957
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-274 - A.A. Mini van
Dinky Toys books
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--40h and 254 Austin FX3 Taxi (1952-59)
--40h and 254 Austin FX3 Taxi (1952-59)
-066 Bedford Flat Truck (1957-60)
-066 Bedford Flat Truck (1957-60)
--40h and 254 Austin FX3 Taxi (1952-59)
--40h and 254 Austin FX3 Taxi (1952-59)
--40h and 254 Austin FX3 Taxi (1952-59)