Toy & Miniature Museums

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 .[img] / images / sites / default / files / old - forum - images / luchtfoto.jpg [/img] Taking photographs is allowed,
so I can give you a quick photographic impression (
as far as some Dinky Toys related items are concerned
): [img] / images / sites / default / files / old - forum - images / IMG_0793.jpg [/img] [img] / images / sites / default / files / old - forum - images / IMG_6330.jpg [/img] Jaguar XK 120.[img] / images / sites / default / files / old - forum - images / IMG_0808.jpg [/img] [img] / images / sites / default / files / old - forum - images / IMG_0800.jpg [/img] [img] / images / sites / default / files / old - forum - images / IMG_9598.jpg [/img] Packard Convertible.[img] / images / sites / default / files / old - forum - images / IMG_0812.jpg [/img] [img] / images / sites / default / files / old - forum - images / IMG_7497.jpg [/img] MG Midget.[img] / images / sites / default / files / old - forum - images / IMG_0803.jpg [/img] [img] / images / sites / default / files / old - forum - images / IMG_6932.jpg [/img] SS Jaguar.Some Dinky Toys display impressions: [img] / images / sites / default / files / old - forum - images / IMG_0823.jpg [/img] [img] / images / sites / default / files / old - forum - images / IMG_0825.jpg [/img] [img] / images / sites / default / files / old - forum - images / IMG_0826.jpg [/img] [img] / images / sites / default / files / old - forum - images / IMG_0827.jpg [/img] [img] / images / sites / default / files / old - forum - images / IMG_0828.jpg [/img] [img] / images / sites / default / files / old - forum - images / IMG_0829.jpg [/img]
And of course many other toys (above),
of which I happen to have the wooden horse
and cart,
made about 1940: [img] / images / sites / default / files / old - forum - images / IMG_8996.jpg [/img] 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: 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.

Hi Jan You are right, Brighton is well worth a visit. Perhaps the most impressive diecast display is the Spot On one - including some very rare variations - although there are lots of other interesting toys there. I can't resist posting this pic, even if it is a bit off-topic. Regards Mark

I recently visited the Liverpool Museum and took these photos of some of the displays of Dinky Toys, there were also displays of Meccano as well.

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
















[img]/images/sites/default/files/forum-images/IMG

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