Hello, and welcome to the personal website of James Opie.    Last update 1 Jan 2012

If you have toy soldiers, and have questions about them, want to know what they are worth, or how to sell them, I am glad to help. Please feel free to email me at jamesopie@yahoo.co.uk or alternatively phone me on +44 (0)20 7794 7447. You can leave a message if necessary.

I am Toy Soldier Consultant to Bonhams, the auctioneers.

2012 SALES

8 February at Oxford

    Toy Soldiers and Figures (Collector's Sale)

Late May at Knightsbridge

    Fine Old Toy Soldiers

25 July at Oxford

    Toy Soldiers and Figures (Collector's Sale)

13 November at Knightsbridge:

    Fine Old Toy Soldiers, Britains, Lucotte, Mignot, Heyde and others

For catalogues, ring +44 (0) 1666 502 200.

All these will be catalogued and photographed for the internet by myself. Closing dates for all sales are seven weeks in advance of the sale date. If you have figures you would like to enter, please contact me now.

We are currently entering up all sorts of soldiers for 2012. If you have a large collection, ask me for details of how we could sell it with the best possible and enjoyable outcome for you - perhaps a special personal individual catalogue - for instance the lifetime Britains collection of Dr William C. McDade was auctioned by Bonhams in their Knightsbridge salerooms, London, England, on Tuesday 31st March 2009. Just to view this magnificent collection was a story and an education in itself. The whole sale is still available to see on the Bonhams website, nearly 400 lots covering the entire Seven Ages of Britains.

In 2011 we sold the Gene Johnson collection of Composition and Tinplate, and the Isaac Gutman of Courtenays

Middlesex Yeomanry, first version, in my opinion some of the prettiest toy soldiers ever made. Britains first made them in 1898, and they are worth about £100 each.   

I have been a toy soldier collector from a very young age, and have tried out many different facets of collecting and related hobbies. The expertise I have acquired has enabled me to write about toy soldiers and catalogue them for auction, which I have now been doing for over thirty years. 

If you would like to meet me in person, or buy one of my books, I will be at the next Toy Soldier Show Saturday 31 March 2012 at the Royal National Hotel off Russell Square in London. I hope to see you there.

Details of the Toy Soldier Experience are on the website of Toy Soldier Collector magazine who are the sponsors. These shows, of which there are three in 2012 are splendid, with lots of extra activities and over a hundred tables, and to all those people I meet on those occasions, hello again.

My E-mail address is jamesopie@yahoo.co.uk

I can also be contacted through l.gotch@bonhams.com who can take in items for me to catalogue for sale at their Knightsbridge or Knowle salerooms.

For a flavour of the sort of things sold in past auctions, look at the pages for previous sales.

Go to Bonhams website for full details and results from the last sale on 16th November 2011, and once on the site, click on Results.

I am intent on the latest figure to come under scrutiny

The website is divided into three parts, all of which I hope will prove useful to you.

Firstly, an overview of some of the past auctions I have prepared. These pages will tell you what has been for sale at Bonhams, and give you an idea of prices and values, useful both as a buyer and as a seller of toy soldiers.

Secondly, I hope I can answer queries you may have - about toy soldiers or similar items in your own possession, or about collecting, buying or selling.

Finally, I include some of my own experiences and collecting over the highly enjoyable years I have spent in this field, plus information about the books I have written.