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Tradition of London
E Mail order@traditionoflondon.com WWW www.traditionoflondonshop.com
Stockholm - Sweden
Tel; +46 73 673 12 46
See our catalogue 440 different Toy Soldier sets!
Video Showroom in Stockholm, welcome to visit
Tradition of London offer a world wide mail order service!
All our Toy Soldiers and Model Figures are Handmade in Nottingham, England
Tradition of London are sending all orders from Stockholm, Sweden
Some photos from Tradition of London Showroom / Stockroom
Väringgatan, Karlberg, Stockholm, Sweden you are welcome to come and visit!
Please write to make an appointment order@traditionoflondon.com
Erik Lindmark at the Stockholm Showroom Starting from 2022-01-01 Erik is the New Owner of the Stockholm based part of Tradition of London. Erik has been collecting toy soldiers from an very early age - his grandfather was the funder of the Toy Soldier Museum in Hjortnäs, Dalarna/Sweden. Erik has been working with Magnus and Gunnar Lindström for several years within the framework of ToL in Stockholm. |
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ToL is rearranging how, where and who!
The stockroom in Stockholm will close and remain!
The Toy Soldier Sets painted and unpainted with all larger figures 54,90 and 110
will be produced as today by Jon @ RP Worlds Models
web page; https://toy-soldiers.store
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Magnus in the Stockrooms at |
Toy Soldiers 54mm Painted in Gloss Marlborough Battle of Blenheim John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough Prince of Mindelheim, |
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Bob and Pam Prati at RP World Models from United Kingdom came to visit us in April 2015 |
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From Italy, Sandro Taverna to the right |
From UK, Joan and Richard Richard in the middle and my Father to the left and myself Magnus to the right. |
It is with great regret, after 60 years of trading in London, that from 31 December 2012 the shop at 5a Shepherd Street, Mayfair, London, will close, due to circumstances beyond our control.
However, customers may rest assured that Tradition of London will continue to trade and manufacture products in England as well as providing the same worldwide mail order service from Tradition of London or through our agents.
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Gunnar Lindström |
Tradition of London Shop at; 33 Curzon Street
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Steve Hare |
As many of you will know by now Tradition of London’s Shepherd Street shop closed at the end of December, after nearly 50 years in the Mayfair area of an era for me but not the end of my interest in military figures and collecting Napoleonic Militaria and books.
Like most boys growing up in the 50’s I played with toy soldiers and modeled with plasticine.
Back then I preferred the plastic ‘unbreakables’ with their variety of poses. Many were avail-able at Woolworths unpainted for a new pennies each and from these the obligatory Air fix kits followed. From the age of 13 or 14 I started earning money from a paper round and with the money. I was able to buy a sword every few weeks or so from an antique shop in Waltham stow the owner of the shop Mr. Cooke recognized a enthusiast and lent me several books on military history which even more interest.
Later when I fad start-ed working in the City. I visited Gamages store in Holborn and spied metal figures by Marcus Hinton of Hinton Hunt Figures. I traced him to a stall in Camden Passage, Isling-ton which only opened on Saturdays, where I purchased my first proper metal figures. I became a friend of Marcus, an eccentric collector with a museum in his house at Taplow Bucks. He gave me work as a painter and later I did illustrations for his catalogue.
In the late sixties Marcus purchased a shop in the area and asked me to run it along with his mail order business and this is how my true involvement in the model soldier business began.
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Roy Belmont-Maitland The founder of Tradition of London |
Roy Belmont-Maitland the original founder and owner of Tradition was a legendary collector of uniforms and Militaria and he took over the shop which then became Mili-tary Heritage with Alec Griffiths, Alan Caton and myself as Directors. |
Tradition known then as Norman Newton Ltd. Started in the early 50’s by Roy Belmont-Maitland with later Charles C. Stadden as the main sculptor and with the backing of Alan Lewis a friend and the company accountant. Roy Maitland had escaped from Nazi Germany prior to the war and soon after joined the British army seeing ser-vice in various capacities. |
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A shop in beginning of 124 Bond Street followed by shops in 49 Hert-ford Street and 44 Dover Street were opened in the late 60’s and all were eventually amalgamated into one large shop at 188. Piccadilly next to the famous bookshop Hat-chard. This new larger shop had several floors one with militaria one of figures, another with war-games figures and finally one which was used for publishing of the superbly informative Tradition magazine. |
The magazine " Tradition " was special at the times as it gave many illustrators and authors a chance to get their work seen in a specialist magazine. Con-tributors included Briga-dier Peter Young. Lt.Col. |
Nicolson, Bryan and Don Foston, Bob Marrion, Gerry Emberton, to name but a few. Tradition magazines was also the journal of The Internatio-nal Society of Military Collectors which had a monthly meeting in a Dover Street pub. which later transferred to the London Scottish Serg-eants Mess. At these meetings fellow collectors discussed all areas of military uniform and history, there was nor-mally a guest speaker, accompanied by a good amount of drinking!
At this time the mainstay of the figure production was the 54mm animated Charles Stadden figures . All figures were hand-made to customer;s requirements so infinite variations could be achieved from single figures, vignettes and large dioramas. On the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo. Tradition was asked to produces a scene from the battle. A large diorama was made of the action around Hougoumont which included the farmhouse and several thou-sand pieces. Later 90mm figures by Chas Stadden and 35/30mm ranges were added plus 54mm figures in kit form, and over the years new masters were also added to the range by other fam-ous sculptors, among them Ron Cameron, David Scheinman, Alan Caton, Jeff Willis and Charles son Andrew C. Stadden. |
Tradition of London Shop Shepherdstreet 5 a-b |
1976 saw the business move back to the Shepherds Market area with two shops in Shepherd Street the militaria shop in Whitehorse Street,at this tme I mainly worked in the figured shop while Roy Maitland concentra-ted on the Militaria side. Former wartime SAS soldier Alec Griffiths was General Manager, Alan Caton sat and sculpted new masters in one shop and author David Johnson helped Roy at White Horse Street.
The manufacturing at this time was in the Angel Islington area with David Scheinman as manager. Les Osborne as his assis-tant plus various casters.
The now famous ‘Toy Style’ range was added in the 80’s sculpted and produced by David Scheinman who had previously worked on the Tradition Magazine producing both artwork and editorial. These figures were initially made in a style to resemble old style toy soldiers in mar-ching positions. Later, as tastes changed, the range developed to features sets which were more action based and this series is now quite extensive with many new master being produced by Andrew Stadden after David left Tradition a few years ago.
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In 1988 Roy wished to retire, and having already sold the 25/30mm ranges to Lt. Col. Anders Lindstrom of Tradition Scandinavia, he offered the company to him. Tradition became Tradition International Ltd. with Anders and his brother Gunnar as Directors and I became general Manager on the retirement of Alec Griffith. |
Bigger premises oppo-site at 2 Shepherd Street were moved into in 1988 and several overseas ‘Traditions’ were opened. Unfortunately due to in-creased costs in late 1992 Tradition International ceased trading. A new company Tradition of London Ltd. was formed in 1993 when a move back to 5a Shepherd Street was made. Alan Lewis, company account-ant, then became Mana-ging Director with David Scheinman and me as fellow directors. The ‘Governor’ Roy Maitland sadly died in 1993 and the militaria business subsequently closed, this was a great loss to the hobby as Roy was aman who had given many a start in the business, and was an inspiration to many more. All this time production continued at our factory near Royston, Hertford-shire and a small army of out-work painters, under the direction of David Scheinman, painted the toy soldier range. The matt collector 54mm and 90mm ranges were still being painted from the shop in London. |
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Over the years Tradition supplied many museum and special editions for customers including Carlton Televi-sion (sets for the Sharpe TV series). National Army Museum, Portsmouth Naval Museum, Mary Rose, Blenheim Palace, Tower of London to name just a few.
In the 90s Tradition of London moved to 33 Curzon Street, five minutes’ walk from Shepherd Street, but then returned to the ori-ginal 5a shop 10 years later.
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In the 90s Tradition of London moved to: 33 Curzon Street five minutes’ walk from Shepherd Street, |
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Gunnar Linstrom, the previous Director took back the company in 2000 and in 2008 it was decided to close the factory and move all production to another manufacturing base (RP World Models in Noting-ham) and as such David and the staff at the Royston site were made redundant. Over the years, the business has expanded and contracted, we have had visits from collectors from all over the world from Royalty, film stars, soldiers of every rank. Politicians and the man and woman in the street, all have shared a common interest and chat easily together in the shop.
Now unfortunately after many years in the Mayfair area rents have became prohibitive and the Swedish Directors have decided to close the retail shop and operate a mail order only service from Sweden. Tradition will continue to manufac-ture in the UK but myself and assistant of 21 years Steve Taylor will be leaving.
Over the past 40+ years in the business I have been fortunate enough to travel to shows around the worlds, meet fellow enthusiasts and collectors and make many friends along the way. Unfortunately I will not be able to contact everyone personally but I will con-tinue mu interest and involvement in the model soldier world and hope to meet up with people I know at shows etc. in the
future I would however like to take this opportu-nity to acknowledge all those I have worked with over the years Steve Taylors, Les Osborne for over 36 years. Alex Griffiths, Alan Caton, David Evans, John O’Brien, Nicolas Courtney (Dr. Who’s Brigadier), Peter Tilbury, Dot Tichband, Frau Heathfield and Saturday and show helpers, Alan Felix and Richard Philips, and anyone else I have forgotten.
Over the years I have seen the average age of the collector rise and I feel it is a shame younger people are not coming into the hobby. People will tell me I’m lucky to work at a job which is also my hobby and I have to agree, I will miss it!
Articel written by Toy Soldier Collector Issue No 50
Tradtition of London Ltd.
For over 60 years, the name Tradition of London has been synonymous with everything to do with toy soldiers. Even today the little shop in the heart of London's exclusive Mayfair district, a stone's throw from the luxury hotels of Piccadilly and Park Lane, is still a magnet for collectors from around the world.
One man who has witnessed the changes, the shop was not always in Mayfair, the ups and downs, the changes of direction from manufacturer of toy soldiers and supplier of militaria, and fine prints to supplier and retailer of relatively inexpensive toy soldiers, exquisitely painted collectors pieces, and books is manager Steve Hare.
Steve has worked for the firm for over 30 years and he is a veritable mine of information, if he doesn't know about a given figure, print or old book, no matter the manufacturer or publisher, nobody does. Even before joining the firm, Steve was a collector of militaria, mostly Napoleonic, and today he has a fine, but diminishing collection as he judiciously parts with a piece now and then as he nears retirement.
Steve has overseen the shop and its contents first under the original owner, the incomparable but sadly deceased Roy Belmont-Maitland, and since 1988 under the new Swedish owners, Anders and Gunnar Lindström. Originally going under the name of Norman-Newton Ltd in the 1960s Belmont-Maitland began publishing a new for its day but still being copied today it was that groundbreaking Magazine under the title Tradition. |
This was so successful that eventually it was decided to change the name of the business and the toy soldier range to Tradition as well. Over the years a veritable honours list of well-known names in the miniature figure sculpting and painting world has, at one time or another worked for Tradition, including the likes of Charles Stadden, his son Andrew Stadden, Edward Suren, Alan Caton, Marcus Hinton, David Grieve, Ian McKenzie, and many others.
Even yours truly spent some time painting toy soldiers for Tradition! However, two master makers stand out, first Charles Stadden and later David Scheinmann. It was David who introduced the toy soldier range that became the bedrock of the company’s success since the 1980’s. David recently retired but his figures soldier on and his legacy can be seen on the crowded shelves of the shop in Mayfair.
54mm Model Soldier Kit/ Unpainted |
Toy Soldier Kit 54mm Unpainted |
90mm Model Soldier Kit/ Unpainted |
Toy Soldier Kit 54mm Unpainted |
Over the years, the business has expanded and contracted. At one time there were two shops in Mayfair, one selling militaria and prints managed by David Johnson, the world-renowned expert and author on Napoleonic cavalry, and the other being the miniature figure outlet managed by Steve Hare. However, by the mid-80s the militaria business had become just about dried up says Steve Hare, In the sixties, militaria could be picked up relatively cheaply but as time went on it became increasingly difficult to find, especially at the prices we were prepared to pay so that we could make a profit while also allowing us to sell it on at prices our customers could afford. On top of that, large collections did not come on to the market that often and it was usually the case of having to wait until the owner died. Roy, as always, was astute enough to quit while he was ahead and concentrate on the growing miniature figure market.
That was Roy's strength, he instinctively knew when to get into the market and when to get out. Meanwhile, the little shop in Mayfair continues as before. Today, Tradition sells not only their products but also those of King & Country, the French CBG, and, of course, Britains, along with books from Osprey and Histoire & Collections.
90mm Model Soldiers with our Hand Made Box and our Logo
A recent addition to the shop’s range is the hand-carved mahogany aircraft from Delta Bravo Models. These says Steve Hare, was surprisingly successful. After all, being known as a toy soldier shop, moving into aircraft was a calculated risk, but so far, so good.
Steve is not alone in the shop as there is another Steve working with him. Steve Taylor joined the firm around 16 years ago after working in the toy soldier department of the famous Regent Street toyshop, Hamleys. I asked him what periods were most popular among collectors. As always, he says, Napoleonics, both French and British! (It will be remembered that it was Tradition that pulled off the coup of landing the commission to produce toy soldier-style sets of Bernard Cornwell’s famous Sharpe series featuring all the well-known characters from the TV programmes. These have, and continue to be best sellers as the TV series has been shown around the world). However, added Steve, that said, British Colonial soldiers are very popular as well knights.
Turning to Steve Hare, I asked him if the recession had affected the business, especially as the American market, both as mail order and as visitors to the shop, has been particularly hit by the economic turndown. I cannot, in all honesty, say that we haven’t been affected. The Americans certainly haven’t been visiting Europe and London like they used to and so our takings from that area are certainly down, However, on the other hand, with the strength of the Euro, our neighbours on the Continent have been buying so, to a certain extent, they have taken up some of the slack.
It is times like this that I realise that being part of an old established company has its advantages because we have such a wide customer base that when one area goes down, invariably another area rises.
While I was thinking about a question to ask about how they both saw the future, as luck would have it the shop door opened and a gentleman and a young boy came in. It appeared that the lad wanted to start a collection of toy soldiers and was unsure what period he wanted to collect.
Anyway, after much discussion, opening of different bright red boxes, more discussion, he opted for a set of 17th Lancers from the Crimean War. The lad’s name, what a coincidence, was David Scheinmann! I couldn¹t believe it, he was no relation to David of Tradition fame. Then, I thought, what does a young boy want with toy soldiers? Well! Let’s face it, you lay a computer game out on a table and feel them, play with them, wonder about the history behind them. When it all comes down to basics, there’s nothing like a set of toy soldiers. There was the future of the toy soldier industry before me. What first held the attention of boys in the time of the pharaohs still holds the attention of bright young boys in today’s society. Long may it remain so.
By Charles Davis
Tradition Scandinavia
Tradition of London Ltd. is acting as a sales agent for Tradition Scandinavia’s metal figures in an array of scales.
Painted and kit figures based on Swedish themes are a natural specialty for the 34-year-old business based in Stockholm. It produces figures in 54, 90 and 110-mm scales designed by Andrew C. Stadden, Jeff Willis and David Scheinmann. Royalty and military men are cornerstones of the inventory along with the eye-catching “Ladies” range.
Diorama builders and wargamers should check out Tradition Scandinavia’s unpainted 25 and 30-mm figures. They cover a broad swath of history with common soldiers and lofty personalities like France’s Napoleon Bonaparte.
The 30-mm figures are noteworthy for featuring designs by the likes of Charles C. Stadden (Andrew’s father), Clive Knight, Holger Eriksson and David Scheinmann.
In addition, Tradition Scandinavia has been producing the Willie line of 30-mm figures since buying the business from Edward Suren in 1985.
FAMILY TIES
Despite their similarity in names, business bonds and even family ties. Tradition Scandinavia and Tradition of London are distinctly different businesses, according to spokesman Magnus Lindström. His uncle, Anders Lindström, owns the former while his father, Gunnar Lindström, owns the latter company. To the left Anders Lindström |
The genesis of the situation can be traced back to 1970, when Anders visited London on a model soldier shopping trip and struck up a friendship with Tradition owner Roy Belmont-Maitland. Anders later became an agent for Tradition as they developed business deals together.
Brothers Anders and Gunnar partnered to buy Tradition’s 30-mm line and founded Tradition Scandinavia in 1980. They later acquired the U.K. firm’s 25-mm figures and Suren’s Willie range too.
Looking to bow out as he got older, Maitland offered the Lindströms a chance to buy Tradition of London in 1988 and they leaped at the chance.
However, four years later Anders wanted to go his own way, so he was given the Swedish specialties and wargaming figure portions of the business in the form of Tradition Scandinavia. Gunnar retained ownership of Tradition of London.
The end result is that the same Swedish clan is behind two different great sources of toy soldiers and model figures.
For more information, visit the Websites
This article was written by
Stuart A. Hessney at The Toy Soldier magazine http://www.toy-soldier.com/
A Short History of one of the World's leading makers of Models and Toy Soldiers
By: Figure International