Model cars owned by founder of toy firm sold for £21,000

A collection of model cars that were owned by the founder of a toy firm has sold for more than £21,000.

The cars, which belonged to Charles Ullman, founder of Mettoy, included preproduction and rare models from the 1950s up to the 1980s.

The set of 128 lots was deemed to be of "significant importance to the collecting world" by auctioneer Vectis.

But a gold-plated model of James Bond's Aston Martin DB5, which had an estimate of up to £3,800, failed to sell.

A spokeswoman for Thornaby-based Vectis said the toy failed to meet its reserve.

The collection was sold by Mr Ullmann's grandson Philipp Ullmann from Goodwood, West Sussex.

Many of the models were "straight from the factory floor" and "proved a big draw for collectors far and wide", the Vectis spokeswoman said.

Despite the failure to sell the gold-plated Aston Martin, the whole collection still exceeded its upper estimate of £20,000.

Mettoy was founded in the 1930s by German Mr Ullman and had factories in Northampton and Swansea.

In the 1950s it started its Corgi line of die-cast metal vehicles.