Hi, Simos!
Those are definitely Schneider figures.
Schneider Bros. ("Gebrüder Schneider") was a firm based in Leipzig, Saxony, Germany, that made casting molds for hobbyists to cast their own toy soldiers. The catalog included infantry and cavalry from the German states, especially Prussia, Bavaria, and Saxony (Saxon Jäger with their distinctive shako); British infantry and cavalry; French infantry (sometimes mistake for Confederates, because of the kepi); Austrians in their shakos; and American cavalrymen and doughboys in campaign hats. The German figures were available with either the parade plume to their helmets, the plain spike, and also a mold to make the guard grenadiers with their grenadier caps.
They also made molds for civilian figures, including some German peasants in traditional costume; African tribesmen and animals native to Africa; and cowboys & Indians, including an excellent charging buffalo figure.
The style is easy to spot-the soldiers all stand tall like these musicians, with the bulging "pigeon chest". They're also all very cleanly and crisply sculpted. The molds were cast in bronze and original molds still hold up well when used today.
Schneider Bros. operated from around 1890 up to the end of WW II, when the factory was closed.
Here in the US, Schneider molds were sold by different people (eg, Schiercke, Sachs) and some who then started producing them under their own label. Some people also cast the figures and sold them as a garage business.
Early makers of homecasting molds also started with Schneider molds, then branched out into their own designs. Rappaport Bros. in Chicago come to mind, with their Home Foundry brand. A descendant company called Castings, Inc, continued the business up until a couple of years ago, with metal reproductions of Schneider's German bandsmen in their catalog. Their molds weren't as nice as the originals, though; castings made with those molds have softer detail.
In Germany, two different tool-and-die makers, Höhmann and Greiner, produced reproductions of the Schneider molds, in a zinc alloy, that are as good as the originals. I bought some of my molds from Herr Höhmann till he finally retired and closed his business.
The figures come up frequently on eBay. Most of the time, they're awful, cast from old tire weights or other alloys with a lot of lead, so detail is soft. Since the molds are still around, it's hard to date any given figure.
I started out as a collector, with Schneider figures and molds. When I lived in Munich, I bought a set of marching infantry at a flea market. A couple of years later, I found a couple of the molds at another flea market. I bought Richard O'Brien's first "Collecting Toy Soldiers" book, and learned what I had. That set me down this road.
If you've got more, please show them!
Prost!
Brad
