Yesterday's Yesteryears - Lesney Matchbox Models

Yesterday’s Yesteryears — Lesney Matchbox Models by Robert Carter and Eddy Rubinstein. 157 pp. 9 1/4 6 1/2. (G T Foulis & Co Ltd, Sparkford, Yeovil, Somerset, BA22 7JJ. £19.95) It is noticeable that as model cars command higher prices the quality of books about them improves correspondingly. This book is devoted to those Lesney Matchbox miniatures, each of which has a colour picture, in keeping with the book’s high quality. The authors have added a description of each, which will be invaluable to collectors, giving details of dating , and colour and constructional changes along the years. They are critical where they deem this desirable, and not averse to pointing out when real vehicles would not have been seen in the roles in which Lesney presented them; for instance, that odd Yesteryear series of Talbot vans in various liveries starting with Lipton’s Tea, when such Talbots were never used as vans. (Even here there is confusion as to whether Lesney intended this, one of their less realistic miniatures, to be a pre-1914 25/50 or a later Roesch Talbot).

The reviewer is not a collector, but does remember how pleasing he found miniatures such as the original Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost; this book is a reminder to get them down from the attic. It will mean far more to serious Lesneyites, covering as it does the whole range of models— all beautifully illustrated.

Bravo, Foulis! No longer do Dinky Toys have it all their own way! WB