What is the most special/unique set in your Durbar/Raj collection? (1 Viewer)

[TheDurbarMan]

Hi All

I believe my Trophy blue elephant has to be the most unusual set in my Durbar collection. I previously sought information on this Forum about it and other members kindly pointed out it most likely was a special commission. I believe it to be an early Trophy piece as the fans of the attendants are curved and made of tin. The more usual red variant of this elephant has attendants with metal fans which are flat and made of metal. I’ve attached a photo. Please share details and photos of your most special or unique Durbar/British Raj set.

Best wishes

 

[jazzeum]

I have this particular set (one of four elephants I own from the Indian Army and Raj ranges) but I believe mine has the metal fans. I think Martyn (GICOP) has the rarer version.

 

[TheDurbarMan]

Hi thanks for your reply. Is your elephant also the blue version or the red version? I would be interested to know more about and see pictures of the other three elephants you have. Best wishes

 

[jazzeum]

It’s the red version. The other elephants I have are Indian Army or Indian Mutiny. I will try to post photos.

 

[jazzeum]

I managed to find some photos.







I have one more, an Indian Mutiny troop carrier.

 

[TheDurbarMan]

Thanks for your reply and sharing the pictures of your wonderful Trophy elephants. The elephant carrying the 6 troops is a great set. I believe that Trophy did a couple more: 1) a gun carriage driven by two elephants: and 2) an elephant carrying a gun. There was a discussion thread on this Forum a while back where it was asked why only the Trophy Prince of Wales elephant has tusks and all Trophy’s other elephants do not. I wish Trophy had made more elephant sets to go with the Prince of Wales elephant!

 

[jazzeum]

The Durbar elephant is probably my favorite piece, not only because it’s a fantastic piece, but because of the journey it took to get to me. Around 2012 or so, I was searching the web for King & Country figures and I came across a website in Australia. They had many interesting old retired items, including the Trophy Durbar elephant but I wasn’t that interested in Trophy or the Indian range at the time. About a year later I had developed an interest and I wondered if the elephant was still there. It was. I contacted the owner and said he still had and would sell it to me. However, he didn’t feel comfortable in shipping it to the US. I contacted my friend Howard Woods (Northgate Woods) who said he would contact the owner, who agreed to ship it to Howard, who was scheduled to make a trip to the US some months later. Fast forward a few months and I took a trip out to Long Island where I met Howard and his wife, along with a few other collectors, including the late Lawrence Lo and Louis Badolato and I picked up the elephant. A long journey but some things are worth the wait.

A word about Larry. He had a fantastic Trophy collection (along with one of the best K & C collections ever) and I feel fortunate to have several of his Raj pieces in my collection.

 

[jazzeum]

Here is a link to Larry’s albums on the Forum, for those who may be interested.

https://forum.treefrogtreasures.com/album.php?u=430

 

[TheDurbarMan]

Thanks for sharing that great memory. I too had the red version the Raj elephant (together with the Trophy princes on horses and their retainers which are also part of the Raj range) in front of me at a London toy soldier show several years ago but could not afford the asking price because I was a student so had to walk away from them and then spend many years looking for them before finally getting hold of them for my collection.

 

[jazzeum]

Thanks for sharing that great memory. I too had the red version the Raj elephant (together with the Trophy princes on horses and their retainers which are also part of the Raj range) in front of me at a London toy soldier show several years ago but could not afford the asking price because I was a student so had to walk away from them and then spend many years looking for them before finally getting hold of them for my collection.

When I purchased it, it took a big bite out of my budget.

 

[TheDurbarMan]

Here is a link to Larry’s albums on the Forum, for those who may be interested.

https://forum.treefrogtreasures.com/album.php?u=430

Thank you for sharing this link - an amazing collection! If I had space I would have liked to collect the Boxer range and the Trophy and Dragon Crest Sudan range. I have a few pieces from the Sudan range which I could not resist (the Trophy Arabian Dhow and the Dragon Crest Charge of the Khalifah camels) but unfortunately all mostly in boxes as I have no room to display them.

Best wishes

 

[TheDurbarMan]

Another unusual set I was fortunate to come across is a set by Nostalgia - I’m not too sure of the regiment - I think they are called Jodhpur Lancers. I particularly like the officers in the middle with green tunics on brown horses.

 

[TheDurbarMan]

Pic now attached

 

[TheDurbarMan]

I found this set of armored cavalry figures which I think are by Nostalgia but I am not sure of the regiment. Any ideas?

 

[TheDurbarMan]

Here are some pictures of Hyderabad camels by Nostalgia (standing) and Star (sitting).

 

[TheDurbarMan]

Another unusual set: I’ve often seen hunting cheetah sets by Britains, Marlborough (also in attached photo) and WM Hocker, but never seen another tiger like this.

 

[Mike Niederman]

I found this set of armored cavalry figures which I think are by Nostalgia but I am not sure of the regiment. Any ideas?

Warriors from Jaipur, Rajasthan, in traditional chainmail. Beau Geste did a set, too (#75).

 

[TheDurbarMan]

Warriors from Jaipur, Rajasthan, in traditional chainmail. Beau Geste did a set, too (#75).

Thank you for that information, very much appreciated. Do you know if there are any Nostalgia catalogues or lists of their sets or even any idea about the number of sets produced by Nostalgia? I understand that Nostalgia produced many sets of international regiments but do not know how many that was.

I have also read that Nostalgia sets were sold without boxes. Is that true? I have acquired many Nostalgia sets and some have come with boxes but from memory the boxes and labels varied in design and colour so I’m not sure if collectors created their own!

 

[Mike Niederman]

From Mirof's site: https://www.mirofsoft.com/toy-soldier/ Scroll down to Nostalgia. There's a PDF of one of the mid-1970s small booklets, with a history of the company at the end. Shamus Wade also sent out single pages of his new figures with his general toy soldier sales lists. I don't know about the boxes.

 

[TheDurbarMan]

From Mirof's site: https://www.mirofsoft.com/toy-soldier/ Scroll down to Nostalgia. There's a PDF of one of the mid-1970s small booklets, with a history of the company at the end. Shamus Wade also sent out single pages of his new figures with his general toy soldier sales lists. I don't know about the boxes.

Thank you so much - that is a great resource! And at the bottom of one of the Nostalgia brochures it says “normal price is x for a box of 8” so that answers the question about boxes too! I also found on the same link the Marlborough catalogue which is useful to have albeit incomplete.

If anyone has any of the loose monthly Nostalgia brochures I would very much appreciate if you can share copies. It would be lovely to one day have a complete list of all their sets!

Best wishes