Two interesting German market World War II toys

I have finally worked out how to get images in the right order on my blog, hurrah! Here are two really interesting toys that I have just bought, I have listed them on eBay, so if you would like to buy them and are reading this blog before 8pm on the 22nd June 2010, have a look.

The first one is a very interesting game to encourage new recruits to the German army. There is a label on the side of the box which says "Oh, welche Lust Soldat zu sein!" which translates to "Oh, what Joy to be a Soldier!". As you can see it is a four-fold colour printed board.

The box is plain red, which would suggest to me that it might actually made during the war, as people were more economic with supplies during these years. The game comes with die, counters and little cards.

The game comes with original instructions, sorry I haven't translated them, so I am not sure if the game is complete or how to play it.
Here are close-ups of each quarter of the game. From the initial call up to the army medical, cough now!
Being fitted out with your new uniform as a Storm Trooper.
Doing boring sentry duty.
Earning your stripes.
Perhaps being congratulated on winning the war!!!

Here is the next toy I bought from the same person, I suspect they were one child's toys. This is a constructional/puzzle toy of a battleship.

The label on the lid reads "Flotten baukasten erzeugnis der bayerischen ostmark" and translates as "Nifty Modular Product of the Eastern Bavaria". It is also marked DRGM. An ex-colleague of mine, who was much older and perhaps remembers the war years; use to say DRGM stood for Dirty Rotten German Muck!

There are plans for two German, two French, one British and one Italian vessel.

It is in nice condition, but not quite complete. It is missing a piece of the prow, the pointed front end. This is just wood which is painted grey, I think this would be fairly easy to replace.
As you can see the box is a bit tatty.

I find these both very interesting. I have also seen games called Bombing England; where you can bomb various cities of England. You obviously have the same sort of games which are about Bombing Germany..

Luxury 1930s Christmas Crackers

I was going to save this blog for Christmas, but I have decided to add this now for my new reader, code name EOB. She is a big fan of Christmas things, although she might think these are a bit vulgar! I love them, they are called Golden Horseshoe Floral Crackers. I presume the Golden Horseshoe is just a good luck thing, as there is no other horsey theme.

It's just amazing that a set like this survives. The colours are very 1930s, bright and gay, they would look wonderful on your Christmas table. How could the original owner have not used them. One of them has been carefully opened and look at the present. I would love to see what is in the rest of them, maybe I could get them x-rayed.
He is a little blown glass jointed charm, about 1.1/2in. high. I can't work out what he is meant to be, perhaps it's just a child in a winter outfit. There is also a rolled up hat and motto.
Here is the label on the side of the box. There is no makers name, which I find very surprising. The whole box is 28in. wide and each cracker is 10in. long.
As you can see the tubes are gold paper which matches the box lining. One end is a dark orange coloured crepe paper which I think is meant to look like a flower, this has glitter on the edges. The other end is a lighter orange skirt, with a frilled darker orange darker skirt. The carnation is hand coloured and is laid on a piece of orange net, there is also a real piece of dried fern. All is covered with a bit more glitter.
Love or hate them, they are a rare survival of a jazzier age.

Britax seat belt Teddy Bear advert, 1960s

This is a fun item, an advertisement for seat belts. It is on tin with a paper image, covered in plastic. The bear is a Sooty type, has a slight look of a Chiltern Teddy Bear, but is probably a smaller maker. Does anyone know who made him?

"Our Toy Zoo" illustrated by G.F. Christie, featuring amazing Steiff toys.

I think this dates from circa 1910 and has some amazing toys illustrated amongst it's pages. I have illustrated all twenty-four here, but I still can't manage to get them into order. I love this book it is for sale on my website, so if you like it, click onto the link at the top right.

Here is Tige the dog.
A wonderful early jointed monkey.
I can't find this hippo, but it obviously a toy, would be great if you found a Steiff one!!
Both these cats were made by Steiff, the Halloween one in the front, but the long necked one is very rare.




You can recognise these jointed donkeys by Steiff and also Missis from the Katzenjammer Kids.


Missis and Captain from the Katzenjammer Kids.
Tige the Dog from Buster Brown.
Here is a lovely Steiff Teddy Bear.

Jointed Teddy Elephant.

Look who is in the front Steiff's Man from Mars or Humpty Dumpty.

Very rare Suffragette tea set

I know this is not really related to the subjects in my blog, but I thought this was so wonderful I just had to share it. As you can see it's a tea set for one made in the form of rather ugly women. When I first saw this I knew exactly what it was; although in the auction I bought it from it was described as an Alice in Wonderland tea set and another person viewing said it was Queen Victoria. You can see it has nothing to do with Alice and Queen Victoria was really well respected, that I doubt she would be depicted so. It was the colours that told me what it was.
The Suffragettes, during their fight for the right to vote, adopted the secret colours of green (G), white (W) and violet (V). Give Women Votes. Often worn in the form of jewellery or worn as clothes, it was a code so you could see who else believed in your principles.
I believe the flower motif around the rims might have some meaning, but I haven't been able to find details of that. The set is made from bisque, an unglazed porcelain, although the insides are glazed. Probably German and dating from the very early 1900s.
There were a number of souvenirs made representing these women and mainly they were very much in the derogative style. Showing the women as ugly and mad!
The campaign reached it's peak during 1912, if you want to read more about it click here. It was the work and effort that women did during the first world war that resulted in a percentage of them being given the vote in 1918. It wasn't until 1928 that they were finally given the same voting rights as men!
Have you ever seen this set before? I can not find it listed anywhere, I would love to find other examples so I could find out what it is worth. I think I will live with it for a while until I find out.

Alice in Wonderland Panorama with Movable Pictures

Here is a wonderful book/panorama, printed by Raphael Tuck & Sons, Ltd. No.8594. The art work is by A.L. Bowley, this dates from the 1920s. The story is condensed into a verse which takes up three sides.

One of the sides with the verse on has an envelope for putting all the loose pieces in.
As you can see each page has three or four separate card figures or vignettes which are then slotted in to correspond with the verse.


Here is the cover. I think the illustrations are lovely on this, a little softer than Tenniel's.
It is a little damaged, but still a very good example of a rare item, I am going to be putting on my website for sale in the near future. I will let you know how well it sells.