British Railway photographs steam away

A unique archive of British Railway photographs and slides dating from the 1940s to the early 2000s sold for a hammer of £5,500 in Tennants Auctioneers’ recent Toys, Models, Collectables and Sporting.

The collection consisted of over 44,000 images, half of which are photographs, half are slides, taken by D. Butterfield and G. Butland, and were sold with copyright. Primarily depicting locomotives, the collection is comprehensively catalogued in notebooks and folders, with the majority annotated with location, date and other pertinent information.

From the sale collection was a further lot of over 2,800 photographs and slides of British Buses (sold for £780), and a collection of over 8,000 images of the Swiss Railways (sold for £950) – both of which were assembled by Messrs Butterfield and Butland. Also with Railway interest was a large LNER Hunt Class Locomotive Fox, once mounted on The Craven locomotive, which was withdrawn from service in January 1961 (sold for £1,200). 

Amongst the sporting lots in the sale was a large collection of British Football League Club enamel badges. The lot comprised approximately 300 badges and sold for £700 against and estimate of £60-80.

The fishing section of the sale achieved a 100% sold rate and included such highlights as a cast alloy fish sign, which sold for £320, and a selection of framed advertising fishing flies sold well above estimate throughout. 

The toy section of the sale saw strong prices for N Gauge locomotives, wagons and coaches, the majority of which came from a single private collection. The top lot was a group of N Gauge assorted British Outline Coaches from various manufacturers, which sold for £850. A further private collection of HO Gauge models, sold well above estimate, too.

Finally, a clockwork Bing Taxi, with a modelled figure driver and lithographed passenger compartment sold well at £600. Selling well, too was a quantity of lots from the Corgi Aviation Archive from an extensive private collection, the final part of which will be sold in the next Toys, Models, Collectables and Sporting Sale in July.