An extremely rare tin-plate motorcycle by German manufacturers, Muller & Kadeder sold at The Auction Centre this week for a record hammer price of £1300 (£1625 including BP). Bidding was brisk with buyers joining in from North America, the Netherlands, Germany and the U.K., but the eventual “winner” was a collector from Italy.
Muller & Kadeder, also known as M&K, was founded in 1900 in Nuremberg, and manufactured tinplate mechanical toys including carousels decorated with images of Zeppelins and aeroplanes, and later toy cars, motorcycles and wind-up merry-go-rounds. The motorcycle referred to in this auction dates to circa 1910 and survived two world wars with its fly-wheel still in working order, and is now considered to be extremely rare and highly sought after.
This lot was just one of a number of early tinplate toys that featured in the 17th November auction, another example being a large tinplate clockwork Bing Touring Car with driver figure, and mechanism in working order with key; hammer price £700 (£875 including BP).
This sale was conducted by our sister company, British Toy Auctions.
