Identification - Will Cranston? Obscure Mignot? (1 Viewer)

[Squiggle]

I picked up these figures on eBay a couple months ago; does anyone recognize them? I'm trying to figure out
the manufacturer and if anyone has ideas on what/who they represent, that would be great too. The two figures
on the right on foot look perhaps Franco-Prussian War 1871.

1. One thought was that they are CBG Mignot because of their thin limbs, but I looked through the new Mignot
book, and couldn't find these figures anywhere. In addition, the horses do not look like anything Mignot produced.

2. More likely, I think they may be William Cranston's work. I don't have any of his figures, I've only seen photos
of them for comparison.

Any thoughts would be appreciated-
-Jonathan/Squiggle

 

[Obee]

The figures all look like Austrian to me.

The first is a prancing horse from the Spanish Riding School in Vienna.
Next looks like mounted Emperor Franz Joseph.
Arcieren Life Guard
Hussar
Artillery Gunner because of brown coat.

As far as the maker, sorry, can't help, but I'll keep on looking.

John

 

[theBaron]

I agree with John-they're definitely Austrian subjects. The Spanish Rider looks awfully familiar. But I don't know who made them, either.

At first glance, they do look like Mignot; they're definitely similar in style, especially the Spanish Rider and Franz Josef. But yes, on closer inspection, we see that Franz Josef's horse has his left hoof raised. Mignot has a horse that looks just like it, except it has its right hoof raised. And the rearing Lippizaner is similar to Mignot's rearing horse (eg, the horse used for Napoleonic cavalry officers), but on closer comparison, we can see that they're different.

I was surprised, too, on looking through my copy of O'Brien's "Collecting Foreign-Made Toy Soldiers" that there's no mounted Franz Josef listed in the catalog. Nor a Spanish Rider.

But I suspect the maker was a native Austrian maker, or one of the German makers. The mounted figures remind me of toy soldiers I saw in 1985 when I was living in Munich. They were new castings made from Haffner molds, if I remember correctly. You could find toy soldiers like that at some of the tinsmith shops around the city, sold along with tin and pewter items.

Another possibility is Wollner, especially given the subjects.

I've had a look through my copy of Roer's "Old German Toy Soldiers", but didn't find these specific figures. Again, I'd have sworn I've seen the Spanish rider, so I thought I might find a picture there. But looking at the Haffner figures, it does make me think that the identification lies in that direction.

I have Roer's earlier book, "Tin Soldiers", so I'll take a look in that next.

Prost!
Brad

 

[theBaron]

Who is Will Cranston, by the way? I've never heard of him. He's not in Garratt's Encyclopedia, which makes me think he's more recent. But I did some web searches on "will cranston toy soldiers" and some variations of that, and none of them returned anything.

Prost!
Brad

A post-script...

Some further searches have returned references to Bill Cranston, with some images, like these:

https://external-content.duckduckgo...y1z09A-SiQC6KBIEem6GgE86WlYLA.jpeg&f=1&nofb=1

https://external-content.duckduckgo...id=OIP.nr6cABaadQCIWo8usFCbbgAAAA&pid=Api&f=1

though unfortunately, the website where those reside:

https://replica-metal-soldiers-and-models-uk.selz.com/

is no longer available.

 

[theBaron]

Also, how big or small are these? Thanks!

Prost!
Brad

 

[theBaron]

The editing interval ran out as I was editing my post above, asking who Cranston is. Following another lead, I saw that he apparently goes by Bill, and I found his website, Replica Metal Soldiers (which I had bookmarked but had forgotten):

https://www.replicametalsoldiers.co.uk/castings-1

After looking through the site and the items listed, I'm confident that your toy soldiers are not by Cranston. I'm more convinced that we'll find they are by a German maker.

Prost!
Brad

 

[Squiggle]

Wow, thank you Brad and John for the quick and informative responses!
You guys were tremendously helpful.
I was completely wrong on both my thoughts on manufacturer and identity of the figures.
I KNOW I've seen faces similar to the paint jobs on the foot figures, and somehow my brain made an
association with Will Cranston. But that was clearly a cranial misfire as you pointed out Brad, noting his molds
are part of Replica Toy Soldiers and look nothing like my figures.
I had not thought of the German or Austrian makers.
Brad, you asked how big they are - the foot figures are a little taller than the standard Mignot figure, but shorter
than Beau Geste figures. They match the height of some of the Alymer figures I have.
The horses are quite heavy; solid cast.

Again, thank you, and any other future insights would be appreciated. If I make any headway on the identity of manufacturer,
I'll post.
-Jonathan/Squiggle