Les Leston Accessories - original vintage early 1970s Raydek keyring - collector's item

An original vintage Les Leston Accessories keyring which will have been produced in the early 1970s .

We have just this one keyring to offer – when this keyring has been sold this listing will be cancelled.

An original Les Leston Accessories keyring made for Les Leston Accessories by Raydek of Birmingham who we think took over the business of Melsom Products in the early 1970s .

We very occasionally see original Raydek keyrings for BMW & Porsche and one or two other makes of car – we think they were only producing keyrings for a very short time .

We have listed very few original Les Leston Accessories keyrings over the years  – these keyrings are rare.

By the late 1960s or early 1970s it may be that Les Leston was no longer producing his own keyrings – but was having them made on his behalf by Melsom Products Ltd. or others .

This keyring is in really excellent condition and is probably new old stock .

The vitreous enamel badge with the LL motif is marked ‘ RAYDEK BIRMINGHAM ‘ on the reverse and is mounted onto a keyfob in genuine black leather which is stamped ‘ KEYFLIX ‘ beneath the badge .

‘ KEYFLIX ‘ was of course one of Melsom Product’s trade names and it would appear that Raydek took over a stock of their leather keyfobs and continued to mount badges onto them .

Obviously they also took over Melsom’s badge dies as the badge is identical to one produced for Les Leston by Melsom Products and the name on the reverse has simply been changed to ‘RAYDEK ‘ .

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 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 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 .