Lead Printing Blocks for Dinky advertising

Here is a lead printing block which was used for Dinky, and dealers to advertise in local papers, magazines etc. It features the 923 Big Bedford Heinz and the 918 Guy Van Ever Ready and is from Christmas 1955 when both these models were introduced.The image on the left is the actual scan and everything is reversed. The image on the right is flipped in Photoshop which makes it easier to read.I am going to try to get an impression on paper but this may take a week or so.These blocks are really rare as they are made from lead and after the featured models were discontinued and they were no longer required they were returned to the block manufacturer, melted down, and made into a completely different block.I managed to acquire three of these during the last 25-30 years, I only remember seeing about 5 or 6 others over this period.I will show the others later.Dave

Very interesting Dave
and.....of course,
very rare.I like very much all these sidelights on dinky collection.

Very nice Dave,
and I also like any Dinky related items.....all of it is interesting to me,
and it just adds some dimension to our hobby.How did you happen to find these ? ? Were they at auction,
or did you somehow know the seller ? In any event,
very rare
and a wonderful find ! Terry

The one above came
from
Bamford ' s Auctioneers in Derby,
they had a number of Dinky Toys for sale in their auction last Saturday.I was out all day so I left an absentee bid,
I was successful
and I collected it on Monday morning.I have two others which I will list later
and both of them came
from
e - bay a few years ago.As I said above these are really quite rare as most were melted down
and reused.I remember when I worked in a camera shop in the early 1960s we used to get these
from
the likes of Kodak,
Agfa,
Leica,
Nikon,
Pentax etc.but they were only loaned to us.If we did not return them within a certain timeframe we had to pay for them,
so they all went back.This is what will have happened with these between Meccano
and the toy shop.I love collecting memorabilia such as this as I feel it rounds off the collection
and helps to preserve what is left of this wonderful company.Dave

Here is a printing block
from
1956.[img] / images / sites / default / files / old - forum - images / Ford_printing_block_1956.jpg [/img] It features the 162 Ford Zephyr
and the 190 Caravan.On the left is the actual lead printing block
and on the right is the printed impression
from
the block.Dave

Dave ---Thanks for explaining how you were able to acquire those. It is great that you have access to some of the auctions and can participate!Terry