A mum who starred in a 1980s Cadbury advert when she was aged three is selling her huge collection of chocolate memorabilia worth thousands of pounds. Emma Tighe, 45, spent decades adding to her Cadbury goodies which she crammed into her home.
Her treasure trove of 369 items includes vintage shop signs, retro chocolate tins, kids colouring books, playing cards and limited edition egg cups. She is now auctioning her whopping collection, which is set to fetch between £2,000 and £4,000.
The most expensive item going under the hammer is a rare enamel 'Cadbury’s' shop signs from the 1920s, which is worth up to £1,000. Cadbury controversially dropped the ‘s’ from its name in 2003 as part of a new marketing strategy, making memorabilia with the ‘s’ even more valuable.
A rare set of the 1930s Coco Club animal figures - one of Emma's most prized items - is also set to sell for hundreds of pounds. Emma's fascination with chocolate started after she starred in an advert in 1981.
She appeared in the Cadbury's Dairy Milk Father’s Day campaign, which saw her face plastered on billboards and posters across the UK. Emma, who grew up a stone’s throw from the Cadbury factory in Bournville, Birmingham, spent years adding to her sweetie collection.
The mum-of-one said: “I grew up in Bournville, where I smelled chocolate 24 hours a day until they put the covers on the chimneys. Our school's main sponsor was Cadbury, so I have grown up with it around me.
“I would visit car boot sales with my mum to look for new pieces to add to my collection. As a child, Cadbury was part of me and from that my collection just grew and grew.
“When I was three my mum signed me up for a child modelling agency and soon after that I got picked to appear in the Cadbury campaign. When I was 12 I’d spend my weekends rummaging through car boot sales with my mum for old chocolate tins and browsing charity shops.”
US giant Kraft Foods bought Cadbury in 2010 for around £11.9billion. Kraft was later renamed Mondelez International and continues to own Cadbury.
Emma, who now lives in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, and runs an antique shop in the town, is selling her collection on Wednesday, February 1.
She added: “Cadbury isn’t even British anymore either, so I can’t see a reason to keep it all now. I can no longer have room to display it all and cleaning the collection would take up whole days.
“I am heartbroken to see my collection go. I used to keep it in my kitchen and have the enamel signs hung up on a brick wall in my garden.
“I am keeping my favourite green and white Cadbury's shops sign from the 1900s as it was gifted by a friend. I vowed I would never sell this piece and I need to keep one item to remember my collection by.
“I will go to the auction, and I will probably shed a few tears, but it needs to be sold. I am hopefully going to get my kitchen refurbished with the money and I want to turn it into a Victorian styled Downton Abbey kitchen.”
The Cadbury collection is being sold by Nock Deighton Auctioneers in Bridgnorth in Shropshire.
