JOHN RUDDLE'S SUBMARINE

As previously noted in THIS POST, John Ruddle, the great garden wargamer and toy soldier collector, sadly passed away earlier this year at the age of 91. C & T AUCTIONS are now (Wednesday 2nd December from 10.30am) conducting an auction sale of his toy soldier collection (although it may be that it is only a part of the collection), and the Auction Catalogue is available ONLINE TO VIEW.

Here is Lot 178, "Souvenir of the Garden Fleet : Submarine with Diving Team" -

Notwithstanding previous blogposts on John Ruddle's inspirational garden fleets (see Naval blog label to the right), this is the first time that his submarine has floated to the surface - all previous published photos featured battleships, destroyers or gunboats. Undoubtedly scratchbuilt, one suspects all that detailed panel and rivetwork of the submarine was painted on, or perhaps penned on with india ink - a proper old school model ! 

Nevertheless, given that this is the only naval vessel included in the auction sale, one fears for the fate of the rest of the fleet....surely it has not been sunk ?

Note

The information about the Auction Sale originally came from Mark, Man of Tin's blog HERE. Always a blog worth keeping an eye on, it has the best information and uniform references on Scouts, lots on H.G.Wells and Floor Games, and shares (but in a different way) Hereford1938's obsession with bodging "cheep Chinese plastic". See the Blog Archive to the right for the Man of Tin's permanent reference place.