Y10-3 Rolls

[GHOSTHUNTER]

I have no personal details of Charlie Mack, never knew him, just of him through his books, so I can not comment on his own way and ideas of collecting such models and as we all know a substantial collection such as his was, there are bound to be some "Dodgy Stuff" as you put it.

Ken Wetton the chief Lesney modeller also had a fantastic collection, including many weird and wonderfull models in odd colour combinations, and when his was disposed of, I expect the same comments were levelled at some of his "Dodgy Stuff", but at least it could be seen as official Dodgy stuff...!

Ghosty.

[Moyboy]

I think the seats in Fixer's model may be from the Model T. The seats in the other Rolls are white or creamy - well known on the very last runs issued and rare with them in.
As for Ken's models they would be very wonderful and fantastic as he designed many of them and a whole range of mock ups that never made it. If a model presented to the board in one colour failed it was saved and modified slightly then repainted in another colour to try again - why waste all those man hours. I know Martin bought a lot of Ken's stuff and some weird and wonderful colours in them, especially the Y7 Rolls ! I suspect the one I have here from the Bentley was made by him and turned into the Aston Martin based on the second Y5. Cut and shut, screwed, using resing and copper etc. Would have made a great companion to the first Y5 as very similar in size.

[GHOSTHUNTER]

Hello Moyboy, yes those seats do look creamy or dirty white but in the off-white and purple Y-10, means they have been stolen from a damaged all silver-grey Y-10 or were sitting around in a box, waiting to go into a model.

The very last seats (the front one more than the rear one), has a unique feature that I use to help identify the different versions and it would be nice to inspect models such as those two Y-10 models to find out their true status. My white seated Y-10 does not come from the last batches of models because the front seat does not have the secret tell-tale detail, but my all silver-grey Y-10 in it's 'J' box does, now most collectors of these models will just say..."oh, the seats can be swapped between models"...and to some degree they can, but I have yet to come across a Y-10 with a lose front seat, but have examples with very lose rear seats, but none have actually fallen out, this is another feature fakers tend not to understand, tight rear seats in Y-10 models are unusual, most of them have some movement, but if it is really tight then why, has it been glued or a new thicker mounting post added.

The secret front seat detail is not that secret, because somewhere on our old 'Lefora' forum, I posted a picture showing the detail and anyone should be able to see the detail just by holding the model in their hand.

Please note, I am conveying all this from memory, as I can not get to my collection, I am living away from my home indefinitely and it was not practicle to bring my 'Yesteryear' collection with me, I only have a half a dozen or so Y-15 models, a few Y-7, but no Y-10 models!! Damm and blast, just when I need them...

GHOSTHUNTER.

[Moyboy]

Ok bloody hell Ghostie - just to confuse you as you have no reference to turn to - what about this little lot !!

[GHOSTHUNTER]

WOW!...I can see some previously known Y-10 colour combinations, including the nice medium blue 'Pre-Pro' with red seats, but several Y-10 models with trial componenets.

...are they all yours Moyboy...

Thank's for showing the picture here.

Ghosty.

[YYS4BOB]

This is a "reference" picture a lot of serious YY collectors have of part of the late John Clarke's collection. This collection was dispersed some time ago by various means, and some items now reside with members here and on MOYBOYZ. This picture is only a small part of the collection.

[Moyboy]

These were taken from the late John Clark's collection. My old mate Phil was lucky enough to get a visit some years back with Horace Dunkley. He took this pic and more of what was truly an amazing collection. Most of it was prepro laid out on tables all around a shed wall and he was an obsessive collector. When John died, Horace sold a lot through his network of collectors but seems a bit of a disagreement set in over some fake items he refused to sell, so the task went to his son. I and many others bought many models through him with some I would describe as Friday versions but John had money to burn and anything described to him as prepro was avidly snapped up at the cost of big prices sometimes.
But it would be hard apart from a very few exceptions today to find a collection on this scale of MOY models. I remember Phil telling me he asked John about a certain model which he couldn't find and he then spent the next hour searching for it, totally ignoring him and Horace till he found it.
I have a few more pics on the drive that show outstanding models but the one I truly would love to own is that purple chassis/green body Lagonda - where did it go? Some we know who had them but others sold by Horace elude us as to who has them.
I still think there are some very big secret collections out there which is a shame - if a collector dies the history is the first thing to go as paper records are ignored when high cost models are sold but provenance is everything and the history is getting lost year by year.

[YYS4BOB]

I still think there are some very big secret collections out there

You're not wrong there! There's one or two I know of, and would love to get my hands on a tiny part the contents, but no chance so far

[GHOSTHUNTER]

It seems a few large collections have gone the same way over the years, it's just the way things work. Auction houses and general house clearing agencies do not maintain collectors with the right knowledge that we have access to hear and on other specialist forums. It is a fact of life that if you have a house full of stuff to get rid of, you can bring in any old 'Tom, Dick or Harry' and they would do a good job removing it and selling it-on. Fill your house with valuable collectibles and you want a specialist to come in and take care of it, but the experts and specialists for our type of collectibles tend not to be employed by the clearing agencies and any specific documentation created by the owner of said collectibles, is largely ignored, the clearing agency staff preferring to catalogue it their own way, usually oblivious to the rare stuff hidden within a collection.

Selective selling of Matchbox collections to other collectors is the way to go, so we can keep tabs on everything, including all documentation, thereby helping to maintain history.

If I want to sell my collection, I would clearly point out that everything is catalogued in my own books and folders and without the documentation the models are worthless, just more models to flood the market.

By the way...sadly I am not sitting on one of those big 'secret collections' mentioned, my collection is quite modest, probably does not even reach the thousand mark!

GHOSTHUNTER.