Some ancient UK minor company figures

Here are some soldiers etc., made by old small UK companies:

First up, A. Fry who also traded as Erecto Toy Co., 1915-22
Here is a sailor and a (probably Fry, unknown for sure) soldier sprayed or dipped in gold paint, which was a lot cheaper and quicker than painting them properly. They would have been sold by market traders or in cheapo shops in poorer areas.
By contrast, one of their nicer and more interesting items, barbed wire fence & bushes for WW1 battles.

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Now for some British line infantry soldiers by the Hanks Brothers, who were former Britains employees who set themselves up as independent competitors 1897-1920

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Now 4 figures by A & J Renvoize, a small London company operating 1900-14.
It is believed they had German connections, and their moulds were made in Germany, which might explain why they closed down in 1914.
I bought the first figure with stripped paint and just the beginning of a repaint job started in a job lot of assorted old lead. I think, because of its fairly neutral uniform with a peaked cap, it was originally issued as a gold sprayed cheapo toy and in several full colour versions, such as all khaki, red coat/blue trousers (British) and likely in other colours as various foreign nations.

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I think these four figures (2 in middle same item at different angles)are all by the Wellington Toy Co. @ Liverpool 190-23. The officer on the left is, but I'm not sure about the others, but the head seem identical on all of them.

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Nice...I think I've got that Renvoize guard at ease in plastic?

smallscaleworld wrote:

Nice...I think I've got that Renvoize guard at ease in plastic?

Quite possible - we're all only too aware of the way moulds were traded between companies, especially those who were only a few streets apart in London. We can only guess who had the mould by the 1950s. For example, Pixy/Kew or Stoddart might have bought it from Renvoize, and then it went to Timpo (who might not have actually used it for plastic, who then sold it on to Benbros.

That's interesting, very vintage looking and brands are new for me. No animals from them?

Roger wrote:

That's interesting, very vintage looking and brands are new for me. No animals from them?

Very few UK makers, even Britains, did animals before 1918. The atmosphere of most of society was very nationalistic and militaristic, The Empire and all that, what with the Boer War and then the beginning of WW1 in 1914, which both sides thought they'd win by Christmas Little boys wanted soldiers!

Little girls had other toys, including animals in Noah's Arks, which until 1914 mostly contained carved wooden animals imported from Germany. Rich kids also had German imported animals toys - expensive lead ones made by Heyde, Noris and other German & Austrian companies. Obviously such imports stopped immediately the war started.

As the war dragged on, and many families suffered husbands/brothers/sons dead, or returned from the trenches with limbs missing and other serious injuries, toy soldiers became much less popular. Hence the toy companies switched to farm and zoo ranges. It took a long time to make new moulds, so not many actually on the market until 1920-23.