Help to Identify (1 Viewer)

[caixademicro]

Hello Everybody
I'm new in this Forum and I need your help.
I found a soldier toy (plumb) in my metal detecting hobby and I can't identify him.
In the place that I found, I also found some coins of 1885, 1888 and early 20th century. It's a clue.
I can't see any brand ... the only thing that I can tell you it's color of the jacket, it was blue. The "figurine" has 6,5 cm x 2,5 cm.
I hope to hear news from you soon.
Carlos

 

[theBaron]

Hello Everybody
I'm new in this Forum and I need your help.
I found a soldier toy (plumb) in my metal detecting hobby and I can't identify him.
In the place that I found, I also found some coins of 1885, 1888 and early 20th century. It's a clue.
I can't see any brand ... the only thing that I can tell you it's color of the jacket, it was blue. The "figurine" has 6,5 cm x 2,5 cm.
I hope to hear news from you soon.
Carlos

Welcome to the forum, Carlos! Your images appear not to have come through; I didn't see them in your original post, so I pasted the URL into a fresh browser window, and was able to view the image.

I'm afraid you've found something that's not really worth anything. It looks like a homecast figure, made from a mold from the German firm Schneider Bros. (Gebrüder Schneider), whose factory was in Leipzig, Saxony, Germany. They made brass molds for hobbyists to use to cast their own figures. The firm was in business from around 1890 through 1945, and their molds were copied widely during that time. There are also two mold makers who continued making zinc copies of Schneider molds, at least through the 1990's.

When they're cast with a good alloy and painted, homecast figures have a visual charm that is unique. I have several of these molds, and I use linotype metal for casting my figures. But many more examples are cast with alloys with a high percentage of lead, making them too soft for good figures.

Your figure is really only good for the casting pot, I'm sorry to say. It's age has no impact on its value in this case.

Prost!
Brad

A postscript - once I saved my reply, your image links worked, and I could see the images in your post.

 

[caixademicro]

Thanks Brad for your answer.
It's normal, Portugal in last two centuries it was a poor country. Probably, the most part of the people didn't have enough money for toys with brands,, for that, and knowing my people as I know, they used that molds to do that figures and give some happiness to the portuguese kids.
In the past I found a small figure in plumb, no brand, probably done with that molds.
These figures have their own charm, for that I'll begin to collect them.
Thanks for the help.
Have a good time
Carlos

 

[DMNamiot]

Hi Carlos,

Great Little lead soldier! Like Bard mentioned its certainly a casting and with the coins you found near it I would say you have the right age for it as well. Since it is lead it isnt good to let the little kids play with but it would be fine on a shelf in your collection as a talking point about what you found and the approximate age. Great find and keep looking you never know what you will discover!

Dave

 

[johnnybach]

Hi Carlos. I thought that you might like to see some modern castings of a Band made from similar Schneider moulds. These were made by a friend of mine from two separate moulds, a year or two ago. One was an original old mould - of four of the figures - and the others were from a modern mould of similar figures with different instruments - which was reproduced by a relative of the original maker. The moulds are still available from him in Germany.

As you can no doubt see - these are half rounded figures, known as "Demi-ronds" - which are really a cross-over from the original Toy Soldiers known as "flats", to the fully rounded figures which are more popular today.

I painted these as a Prussian Band - and as you can see, there were eight different musical instruments available.

I think that the maker of mine, has now ceased trading - as there was not enough demand for his products - even though they were not expensive. I could give you his e-mail adress though, should you wish to try and get hold of some - as I think he still does have the moulds.

Nice to see - a very old original home cast of one of the original range of figures from this very old manufacturer. See my painted band below. Johnnybach