Old Antique Toys: The Miniature World of Old Toy Soldier Auctions (USA)

Wednesday, January 17, 2018
Overcast with Snow
-7 C 19.4 F

The Miniature World of

Old Toy Soldier Auctions (USA)

Please click here to visit Old Toy Soldier auctioneers

I recently introduced you to the RSL Auction Company, which is a multi-faceted company that has several subsidiaries selling all kinds of fine toys. One of these divisions is the Old Toy Soldier company. This is a specialized company specializing in, as the name suggests - old toy soldiers. The company, which was acquired by Mr. Ray Haradin under the ownership of The RSL Auction Company also happens to own a fine old toy journal titled- The Journal for Collectors - Old Toy Soldiers.

Both the auction company and the magazine are excellent resources for collectors of these great collectibles. I haven't added any descriptive narrative to any of the photos today, but I do promise to do so in the future. Nevertheless, if you visit Liveauctioneers, you will be able to see all of the auctions that the Old Toy Soldier company has done, along with the respective photos and descriptions. All of the fine examples today are from a famous British company called Britains.

The reason for my selecting Britains to present is that the company is world-famous, and has been in business and still is, for a very long time.

A brief history of the Britains company courtesy of Wikipedia

The W. Britain brand name of toy and collectable soldiers is derived from a company founded by William Britain Jr., a British toy manufacturer, who in 1893 invented the process of hollow casting in lead, and revolutionized the production of toy soldiers. The company quickly became the industry leader, and was imitated by many other companies, such as Hanks Bros. and John Hill and Co. (Gibbs 2009; Joplin 1996). The style and scale of Britain's figures became the industry standard for toy soldiers for many years.

In 1907 the family proprietorship, William Britain & Sons, incorporated as Britains, Ltd. The Britain family controlled the firm until 1984 when it was sold to a British conglomerate, Dobson Park Industries. They combined the operations with an existing line of toys and renamed the company Britains Petite, Ltd. (Opie 1993). During the first half of the 20th century, Britains expanded its range and market. By 1931 the firm employed 450 at its London factory. The catalogue had expanded to 435 sets and twenty million models a year were being produced. (Wallis 1981). In the early 1950s Britains was associated with W. Horton Toys and Games which made the diecast Lilliput ranges of small-scale rather generic cars and trucks and other vehicles. Later, Britains acquired Herald Miniatures, plastic figures designed by Roy Selwyn-Smith. The company was also known for its American Revolutionary War soldiers.

In the 1950s, besides soldiers, a variety of vehicles began to appear, mostly in the military field. One such detailed diecast vehicle was a Royal Artillery 4.5" Howitzer towable cannon that fired toy shells. For a toy, it was intricately designed, with a special threaded post with rotating knob to raise and lower the cannon. Also in early 1950s, one of the first Britains vehicles was a Bluebird land speed record car of famed driver Sir Malcolm Campbell. It had a removable body and the box showed a detailed cut-away illustration of the car.