Britains Indian Rhino - History

While researching the Britains brand I found some information on their adult Indian rhinoceros model.  The model was first produced in lead then a plastic version was later derived from the original design.  I only have the plastic version as shown below but the lead model came in its own yellow box similar to those used for the elephant and hippo.

Years of production: the information is from Richard Lewis's website
Lead Zoo--908 Indian Rhinoceros 1929-1941/ 1950-1960
Plastic Zoo--1314 Indian Rhinoceros 1961-1999

The plastic version had some variations of toenail/belly colour, these two are made of PVC plastic




The lead version came in a yellow box.  This picture is from an eBay auction, not mine.

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Based on London Zoo's Jim:

This model was based on a real rhino called Jim who lived at London Zoo from 1864-1904 as noted in John Edward's book "London Zoo from old photographs":
"Although Jim was not a large specimen (only 5ft 4in tall), he had a nicely shaped horn and this made him a popular subject with artists and photographers.  Toward the end of his life, he was modelled by Britains Limited for their series of model zoo animals.  Thus, tiny sculptures of Jim can still be bought in toy shops all over the country, over ninety years after his death"

The following images are from the book "London Zoo from old photographs"





Larger figures such as the rhino were cast in two stages to avoid shrinking, the following quote and image are from "Suspended Animation" by Peter Cole.

"the casting of the larger zoo animals such as the rhino and hippo; such items were problematic to mould because, even with chalk in the plastic, their bulk caused excessive shrinkage.  The method which Zang used was to mould in two stages.  A kind of inner animal was cast first, and then this casting was positioned inside the mould for the outer animal, for a further injection of plastic."

If anyone else has information about this model please share what you know.

Very interesting

Great subject, it is indeed very interesting   

I love this kind of topic, - and even about one of my absolute favorite Britains...now I know a lot about Jim  

Thankyou very much   

Britains lead Indian Rhino 'family', adult, young and baby, showing a few paint shade variations:

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WOW!!! They are gorgeous, Dave    

Great topic   thank you Andrew   

Great looking rhinos, and a really interesting topic. Thanks for posting it

That's a extraordinary topic! Thanks for sharing all these informations around a mold. Actually, the plastic version was the figure that made me starting to love Britains figures. It is an excelent model.
This is surely a perfect prototype for a future Toy Animal Wiki article.
To tell the maximum we can get about a single figure, some of them have a lot of story and it is beautiful!
Thanks also dave for showing pictures of Jim whit Morrison!

Very interesting story! Thank you for sharing Andrew and thanks for additional photos Dave!