The Toy Collection of Jack Tempest – Boy, What a Collection!
by Northern Life
Northern Life explores the lifetime antique and vintage toy collection of Jack Tempest.
Known for regular appearances on Flog It!, Bargain Hunt, Dickinson’s Real Deal and Cash In The Attic, and one of the UK’s finest antique experts and auctioneers – Adam Partridge visits the toy collection of Jack Tempest.
Every day is a day treasure hunting for an auctioneer because we never know what we are going to discover, these are mainly single items but every now and again we are asked to sell one persons lifetime collection, this could be books, thimbles, postcards you name it the most popular collections to sell are toys and model railway. You can image our delight when we were asked to sell the Lifetime antique and vintage toy collection of Jack Tempest.
Discover more stories behind the finds here.
A German tinplate clockwork motorcycle and sidecar ‘tourist’, no.370, with rider and passenger – £580
Jack Tempest was an internationally known enthusiast of the world of bygones and curiosities. He was especially interested in old dolls, early miniatures, mechanical music, phonographs, early Christmas decorations, table games, old trade brochures, printed ephemera, and antique toys – his preferred subject.
Jack was also know in the toy collecting world for his reference books to include Post-War Tin Toys a Collectors Guide and Collecting Tin toys to know a few. The items we sold from the collection consisted of around 200 fine and documented examples of late 19th century and early 20th century toys.
German tinplate clockwork tut tut car – £5,000
One category of toys is tin plate toys or penny toys Tin plate toys are exactly that, toys made out of sheets of thin tin formed in a factory and often with a clock work motor and a printed design, these were simple in inexpensive toys because of how quickly they can be made, they were called penny toys because they often only cost a penny.
These days kids are spoilt with hundreds and possibly thousands of pounds worth of toys and we feel we have to splash the cash to get them a big pile to open on Christmas day but in the Victorian and Edwardian times most kids got an orange and a bar of chocolate the lucky ones would have a skipping rope, a spinning top and whip or if they were really lucky a tin plate toy. Some parents would agree (especially when taking game controllers) kids these days don’t tend to look after their toys but in the old days when you only got one toy it was well looked after and cherished that’s why loft discoveries can bring you some real treasures.
A 1920s tinplate toy modelled as a dog pulling a cart – £2,250
The Jack Tempest Collection Auction was held on Thursday 10th November 2022 and the room was packed and the internet bidding was fierce, the prices we achieved were in some cases 5–10 times the estimate.
Some of the highlights are:
CKO Kellermann; a German tinplate clockwork motorcycle and sidecar ‘tourist’, no.370, with rider and passenger – £580
German tinplate clockwork tut tut car – £5,000
A collection of victorian dolls – £2,500
A 1920s tinplate toy modelled as a dog pulling a cart – £2,250
If anyone has a collection they are considering to sell no matter what of we would love to look at them.
Contact Steven Parkinson at the Preston valuation office on 01772 347 380.
NorthernLife Jan/Feb 2022
