Exactly a century ago a huge lead toy craze was sweeping the nation’s children . . . and the soldiers and sailors that we feature this month were the cause.
The sets were made by a company called William Britain Limited, a long-established but fairly obscure little toy company that came up with a new way of making cheap, accurate, scale, lead soldiers.
In the early 1890s, Britain’s people were searching for new products that would give them an edge in the highly competitive toy business. They focussed on the toy soldier market, then dominated by German toy firms.
The big breakthrough was made by William Britain, the son of the founder of the firm, who came up with the revolutionary idea of hollow casting. It does not sound that exciting but it meant that the toys required less metal and therefore could be produced considerably more cheaply.
Moreover, for the first time, a mass-market toy manufacturer paid real attention to detail. For starters, all models were produced to a standard scale – 1/32nd of an inch – and the modellers also went to great lengths to achieve accuracy with uniforms.
The recommended price for the sets was just a shilling (5p) and many outlets sold them for a penny or two less than that.
Among the first customers for the new toys was Gamages of London, one of the most famous toyshops in the country. By 1906, their catalogue was advising that they held a stock of half a million toy soldiers – and they were virtually all manufactured by Britain’s.
The obscure little toy company did not just establish an edge over the competition; it destroyed it. The firm’s workshop was extended, extended again and then replaced with a brand new factory. Staff numbers rose to 300 and the flow of toy soldiers went into reverse, with exports to America and Europe, rather than imports.
The firm even opened a Paris office in 1905.
The two sets that we feature date from those glory days: The naval set “White Jackets of the Royal Navy” (Set No: 80) was produced from 1897 to 1940 but the standardised box indicates that it dates from 1906 onwards. I would think it is pre-First World War.
The soldier set is The Duke of Cambridge’s Own (Middlesex Regiment) (Set No: 76), so contemporary and again a standardised box, post-1906.
The Middlesex was one of the main London-based regiments, formed in 1881 by the merger of the 57th (West Middlesex) and 77th (East Middlesex) Regiments of Foot. The Duke of Cambridge involved was Prince George, a grandson of George III.
The most immediately striking thing about the sets is that their boxes have survived and in good condition. How many of these boxes lasted beyond even Christmas morning a century ago? On the evidence of a recent specialist toy auction at the Brigg Rooms, not so many: The auction had around 30 lots of lead toys and these were the only boxed sets.
As readers may be aware, original boxes are very important to all serious toy collectors but, more than that, they are very important in protecting toys, which is particularly relevant with things as fragile as hollow cast lead soldiers.
These were playworn but they had not been badly knocked about or broken. In terms of condition, I would rate them seven out of 10. For toys of this age, that is pretty good.
Is there very much interest in these things when they go under the hammer at auction? You bet. There are a very large number of collectors and war gamers.
In this condition, you would expect The Duke of Cambridge’s Own to make £30 to £50. The White Jackets set is more interesting, because they are a bit different, and they will make £40 to £60.
In mint condition, which you have to say is very rare, we would certainly be talking up into the hundreds of pounds for both sets. Not bad for things that originally cost just a bob or less.
Britain’s continued making lead soldiers until after the Second World War when cost – and concerns about safety – saw lead being replaced by white metal and plastic. In the three quarters of a century between William Britain cracking the problem of hollow casting and the production of the last lead toy in the mid-1960s, the company issued well over 2,000 individual sets and manufactured literally billions of the little soldiers.
While many of them have, of course, long since disappeared, sets do still turn up in cupboards, long unopened drawers and distant corners of attics where they have lain unseen for decades. People are invariably astonished to learn what they are worth.
Source: thisishullandeastriding.co.uk