Model car collection tops £20,000 at Newbury auction

A collection of 300 model cars has been sold at auction for more than £20,000.

The scale replicas, ranging from pre-1939 racing cars to 1990s miniatures, were owned by collector Alan Barrett who died last year.

He had amassed the collection over 20 years and kept them at his home in Glasgow.

Thomas Forrester, of Special Auction Services in Newbury, Berkshire, described it as an "extraordinary collection".

Mr Barrett's son Geoff said his father saw them as "works of art" and they had filled multiple shelves in his home.

He said his father, who died aged 79, was fascinated by the detail of the miniature vehicles and could not understand how they could be made "so small and so perfect".

The family decided to sell the collection to other model car enthusiasts as they did not want to see it "gather dust", although some models will be kept back in his father's memory, Mr Barrett said.

The cars - many still in their original boxes - were sold individually during a two-day auction.

Among the lots was a Mercedes Benz which went for £140 and a Jägermeister racing car which sold for £150.

Mr Forrester said the auction had attracted interest from around the world.

"It's just the sheer numbers of this extraordinary collection - and collectors love them still in their boxes. It's testament to the motor racing - the interest in it doesn't die," he added.

The whole collection sold for a total of about £22,000, including buyer's premium.

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