1957 CADILLAC
Rock ’n’ Roll, and the flashy American cars associated with it, have been the driving force behind a good deal of nostalgia, but in the case of John Hall they proved to be the starting point of a very successful business.
Hall was a Londoner with an engineering background who emigrated to Canada in the 1960s and set up a workshop in his basement to make his own model cars, initially from resin and thereafter from whitemetal. Similar specialist collectors’ models were mostly sold in kit form, but John Hall’s products were fully built and finished.
The small Canadian town where the models were made – Brooklin spelt with an ‘i’ – provided the brand name and the first three subjects were a Pierce-Arrow, Tucker and Ford Model A, establishing a classic American theme. Hall returned to England in the late ’70s and set-up a factory in Bath that is still thriving, and the company is now reputedly owned by the Italian billionaire luxury goods magnate Nicola Bulgari, who is a passionate classic car enthusiast.
Many sub-categories that were developed to appeal to collectors – International Police Vehicles, the Buick Collection and, above all, the Lansdowne Collection, which consists of classic British vehicles – have helped Brooklin to remain popular, despite competition from Chinese-made resincasts.
The solid style of a whitemetal Brooklin like this ’57 Cadillac Eldorado still has an appeal of its own, and the deep gloss finish, achieved with three coats of paint, is always flawless. A new Brooklin now costs well over £100, but it’s a price that many are prepared to pay.