We have a shop in town that sell off house clearence items which varies greatly in quality and type (ie bricker brac to junk ), I found these figures about 75mm/3" tall made from pure lead (they bend very easily at the ankles) glued to a hefty block of varnished wood .
The first job was to carefully remove them from the base (luckily they were not fixed to securely) and rebase them on some thin MDF . I'm going to repaint them , I think they look like French Chasseures 1870ish and they will be for display only as they are such an odd size and don't any of my other collections. I have no idea of the manufacturer but look home cast
Nice find Tony! They look like very nice castings, they remind me of the smaller Schneider figures, especially the shape of the base.
ReplyDeleteI suspect they are continental moulds
DeleteI wonder if the red was a later repaint? They would appear to be French or Belgian light troops. And I now want to know who made them, and their age? Surely continental?
ReplyDeleteMichael
The paint job is recent I think (and poorly done) . They are pure lead and very bendy so probably homemade castings- German/French????
ReplyDeleteBrad is right, they are homecast figures from Schneider Gbr. moulds, which were made in Germany from the 1920's and were exported extensively, particularly to the US where homecasting was a popular pastime. The moulds were also promoted as a home business, I have met people who produced the figures in the garden shed and painted them then sold them boxed up through street markets. The high lead content suggests they were made some decades ago, these days people would use white metal.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the info , it fits with the figures which are very very bendy especially about the ankles which points to pure lead , I don't think the paint job is very old - looks like Humbrol enamels I think .
DeleteBrian, fascinating info!
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