Wooden Toy Soldier Set possibly from Czechoslovakia - Any Info? (1 Viewer)

[Julie]

I had someone contact me about a set his wife was given: "My wife was gifted a wooden toy solider set from her grandfather in 1954. The set came from Czechoslovakia, his place of residence. I have no other information of this set. There are about 60 pieces in a range of condition and they look to be screen printing."

Has anyone seen anything like these before and have any information on these? They are looking to sell them but were hoping to find out some more about the set first.
They are rather neat looking I think!










Julie

 

[jazzeum]

This may be something that Ray -- nmrocks-- may like.

 

[theBaron]

The only thing I've ever seen even remotely similar, are the paper soldiers that were printed in Epinal in the Vosges in France, and in other countries, most commonly in the last decade of the nineteenth century and up to the First World War. They were usually printed in sheets, which could be cut out and then pasted on card stock or wood, and then stood up for display. In his "Color Treasury of Model Soldiers", Massimo Alberini includes some examples of the Epinal soldiers, as well as a wonderful set printed in Italy, depicting an Easter procession of the King of Sardinia, if I remember correctly.

The quality and style of the printing on these, suggests those printed soldiers. These look like they may have been printed in sheets, glued to the wooden backing and then cut to shape with a scroll saw, whether by hand or with a powered saw.

They could be older, too, than the date your gentleman suggested, even dating to before the First World War, though I'm just speculating. But they don't look like something produced under the Communists. On the other hand, they could depict men-at-arms from the peasant uprisings in the Middle Ages, which would have been an appropriate subject for Marxist-Leninists to display (part of history's march of the oppressed proletariat on the road to the Workers'-and-Peasants' Paradise).

It would be interesting to see a photo of the whole collection of them, and to know if there were any packaging of any kind, too, even if it were just a plain box.

Prost!
Brad

 

[theBaron]

As a post-script, I think there was at least one American printer of such toy soldiers, too, and maybe more. I think O'Brien shows some examples in his "Collecting Toy Soldiers."

And of course, such paper soldiers are relatives, as it were, of paper dolls, which were popular here in the past.

Prost!
Brad

 

[DMNamiot]

Hi All,

I have seen some of the paper soldiers in a small museum in Dresden and agree that the ones shown here are very much like those. They could be as old as the Baron states and I believe that these were printed prior to WWI. They are wonderful figures that I would like to have in my collection. As to price it is difficult to say since there are pretty unique.

Dave

 

[nmrocks]

Yes I think Brad and Dave have nailed, paper soldiers glued to a wood backing.
Ray

 

[Obee]

On my travels in 2014 we visited the Czech Republic and in the Toy Museum in Prague Castle I saw these figures, which appear to be similarly made.

They are about 12" high, as seen with normal lead soldiers in front and look like French of the 2nd Empire and Prussians.



Again in Salzburg (Austria) there was a WW1 exhibition ( seeing it was the centenary of that event) and these soldiers were on exhibition, and you can see that there are paper glued onto board.



So I'd suggest you do more searching on paper soldiers and see what comes up?

John

 

[Julie]

Thanks everyone! I will pass along info and let them know - we may see this set in the future

Julie