The Trophy Room used for Board Meetings at Landmark’s Royal Mint Court centre, for many years displayed golf and other corporate trophies when the building was the executive HQ for Barclays Bank Plc.

In order to introduce a fun element to the room, Landmark’s David Todd introduced an American antique toy, a Zilophone, manufactured in 1920 to be displayed in one of the cabinets. Since then the collection has grown to over 125 pieces, with a heavy emphasis on British and German manufacturers, the latter country producing some of the worlds finest tin plate toys and most expensive!

The collection features predominantly wind up tin plate toys manufactured between 1890 and 1950, the later toys containing component parts made of plastic as the toy industry gradually ceased making tin plate toys in favour of moulded plastic.

Toy collecting has grown enormously in popularity acting as they do as three dimensional time capsules and a nostalgic reminder for many of a long-vanished way of life.