Austin Healey – original vintage 1960s Les Leston Accessories keyring – collector’s item

An original Austin Healey keyring produced by Les Leston Accessories which will have been produced in the 1960s .

We have just this one example of this exceptional keyring to offer ( the only one which we have ever listed over the years ) – when this keyring has been sold this listing will be cancelled.

This keyring will be original & correct for use with any 1960s Austin Healey – particularly as the badge features the early wings design which would be appropriate for Austin Healey 100, 100/6 & early 3000 .

At the time of the 1953 -1956 Austin Healey 100 , car keyrings were not yet generally available but owners would probably have then bought a keyring to use with the car as keyrings began to become available in the late 1950s & early 1960s – so we would regard this keyring as being original & correct for use with those cars .

This keyring produced by Les Leston Accessories is in really excellent condition – particularly considering that it is over 50 years old !

Les Leston produced a range of top quality motoring accessories aimed at the principle car brands ( Austin Healey, Jaguar etc )

The nickel plated jewellery quality vitreous enamel badge on this Austin Healey keyring is in exceptionally good condition with no enamel chips whatsoever – quite remarkable after all these years .

The badge has Premier Badges of London’s details marked on the reverse  – Les Leston Accessories obviously bought the badge in from Premier Badges to mount onto one of their own keyfobs ( or Premier mounted the badge for them )

Les Leston Accessories did not produce keyrings in sufficiently large numbers to merit producing their own badges – so would have bought badges in at the time .

The genuine black leather keyfob is also in excellent condition with the reverse of the keyfob gold embossed with Les Leston’s double ‘L’ logo .

Les Leston was a larger than life character who served in WWII as a mid-upper gunner in an Avro Lancaster bomber – unlike many of his colleagues he survived and then went on to embark on a career as a racing driver.

Originally racing a Jaguar SS100 he then went onto drive for Lotus and Aston Martin .

After escaping from a serious crash during a race at Caen in 1958 he went on to concentrate on developing his motorcar accessories business – Les Leston Accessories – which became very well known for marketing high quality motoring accessories in the 1960s and early 1970s.

The range of accessories included steering wheels, gear lever knobs, mirrors, etc and also gloves and flame proof clothing .

Many of the accessories were aimed at Jaguar cars and owners and Bud Marston has devoted a couple of pages of his ‘Vintage Jaguar Keyrings’ book ( featured in our Jaguar section here in this website shop ) to describing the life & times of Les Leston together with descriptions of the products .

The keyring in the photos is the actual one which you will receive and is a splendid example of an original 1960s Austin Healey keyring .

This will be one of the most significant Austin Healey keyrings which we have ever listed .