P is for Philanthropic Polymer Pile

I haven't been as quick or often through the Charity Shops, this last eighteen months or so, work commitments, eBay bottom-feeders and a couple of store closures making it a less lucrative quest these days, but I did manage two quick tours of Farnham and Fleet's charity shops last week, while I had some time off, and I found these.

 

This was a quick round-up in Fleet

 

Box tickers for the tubs of generic play-set accessories, but also a new figure, funny how, despite forty-odd serious years of this, there's still new figures, in every bunch of plunder, every donantion, even a random bag of charity stuff! Jame's Opie always asks - primarily of lead hollow-casts and solids - how many figures (actual pose mouldings/sculpting) have there been, and the answer, from where I'm sitting, is millions - one is including copies and colour or paint variations.

 

A couple of slip-cast kittens, with slightly 'Disney' or 'doe eyes', but a rather interesting glaze technique, I thought? And mostly because they are often in mixed lots of cats, or pets, I now have quite a side-collection of china, bisque or chalkware cats. These are priced 3/6 each (three shillings and sixpence, 42 old pence, about 16p in new money, at the time?).

 

A pair of Toy Major Dino's.

 

A right old mix here, with the Ray marked Smartstudy and Viacom 2021, I assume not a Finding Nemo thing, but some other franchise, maybe Baby Shark?

 

And then, the next day - to Farnham!

 

Given the cost of these new, or 2nd-hand with box, I'm guessing a tenner for the three, while a swallow, was also the best I was going to get for what, to me, are box-tickers, to compare with plastics in the future? Not 'Britians' but W'britian from the US.

 

Simply marked 'China' and probably from some toob, or tub type thing, but a nice sample of ocean or shore-dwelling mammals, from the left; a Sea-lion, Mantee, Seal and Walrus.

 

It's Christmas! A nicely executed bit of poured-resin, possibly from Italy, but I don't know, as they are unmarked where visible, and have green-baize discs on their undersides, hiding any clues which might be there?

B is for Benevolent Buys - 3 of 3

Along with the cats and turtle/tortoise (you'll agree it wasn't clear, but flatter = turtle?), came this bag of shrapnel at the start of October, nothing special, but all fun!

 

A Fiver's the top-end for this kind of thing, but it'd been a few days since anything joined the stash, and withdrawal was starting to itch, so what choice did I have?!!

 

A near-complete set of the 'Nabisco' Magic Roundabout, and in a follow-up I'll explain way I haven't italicised the Nabisco, and have placed it in single-quotes, but for now, strange that it's all in red, with no sign of the other colours normally associated with the 'cereal premium'?

 

Standard Erzgebirge houses and church, but larger than previous ones we've seen here, with an extra window each, The Church/Public building with Zwiebelturm (onion tower, one of the first German words I learnt, the dreaded Umleitung came second, Bummelzug third!) is one from our childhood, I've been after for years, so really pleased to add this to the pile!

 

 

Other wooden stuff of the Erzgebirge type, with the train possibly a later Kinder one, and the car probably from a board game. Some of it may go with the cottages in the previous shot, but it's not obvious, while styling, paint, varnish &etc. . . suggests several sources, and many years between oldest and youngest samples.

 

Mostly 1970/80's rack-toy scenic stuff, but the greenhouse is from the New Ray HO civil/model railway accessory range, and the two Poplar trees are new to the collection, and - with those huge bases - probably from something more infant-oriented, and also, probably more modern.

 

Odds & sods; the barrow looks like it should have a pencil-sharpener attached, but there's no sign of such an accoutrement having ever been attached, and I don't know what the blue-cap is from, or if it's even anything to do with toys whatsoever? 

B is for Benevolent Buys - 2 of 3

This first shot was a bunch of things from a charity shop in Cranleigh, same visit as the Post Office and includes the deer we've already seen (I should pop over there again, it was a while ago!), while the others are more recent, but a few interesting things?

 

A ceramic cat fairing, I've picked-up so many of these I wonder if I shouldn't do the 'Shire Album'! In point of fact, the 'proper' ones have been done, and most of the ones I've picked-up over the years, are the cheap, unrated/discounted (by the serious/dedicated collectors) copies, or Japanese imports, so that's not a viable idea! I'll do a page here one day!

 

A resin otter and Phidal Marvel or DC character, a capsule-toy dinosaur, distributor obscured, the glass vitrine deer we saw the other day, two teddy bears, one generic, the other from the Noddy set which is slowly growing, along with an inclusion bouncy-ball.

 

That inclusion; it seems to be a cake decoration, with icing spike!

 

Undersides of the two bears, one in plastic and marked 'Noddy Subsidiary, Empire Made' with code and date (no, I can't read them either!), while the generic, probably also a cake decoration is chalkware, made of a plaster composition.

 

 

This was one of those strange moments of serendipity bordering on synergy, I'd seen the [marked] Peter Fagan (which is why I could 'believe' earlier today!) in Blue Cross, and left it as a bit daft, then went next door to the DEBRA shop and found the 'Sitting Pretty' trio from The Leonardo Collection (real high-street jewellers fare from Lesser & Pavey), so, it seemed dafter to not grab the one, and wizz back next-door for the other! Kittens . . . in satchels . . . on the Internet!

 

1987 for the smaller, 1998 for the larger, and I'm guessing, given some cats' love of bags, that this is a common trope among these ornamental 'collectable' sets of cats, so we may find more!

 

This came with one or other of the above purchases, and I don't think it's Jade, but one of the many false Jades which can be marbles, or quartzes/quartzites, maybe a greenish onyx? There is a sub-collection of reptiles in a half-shell, which we haven't really looked-at yet, but one day!

 

And there is another one or two of this type there, as they are always popular tourist mementos (there are elephants too, and we've seen a lizard here, I think), things made of the local stone, are forever anchored in where they came from, if you know what I mean? Much nicer than a poured-resin, puffin, fridge magnet with Camber Sands marker-penned on it!

B is for Benevolent Buys - 1 of 3

Clearing out a folder of Charity Shop purchases which seem to have escaped some of the other Charity Shop purchase posts over recent months, and nothing exciting here, but all grist to the mill!

 

Actually, from the tail-end of '24, and I can't remember where, a resin jobbie of the sort that fills and has filled window-space in high-street jewellery chains for decades now, it was in good-nick, and pennies to charity, it goes in the box of such stuff!

 

I think this and the next two were from a rare trip to Camberley, I undertook back in February, looking for something else, but it might have just got shot with the others, but be an earlier find in - probably - the Blue Cross shop in Fleet?

 

A couple of the expanded-polystyrene glider novelties, we've seen before here, and of which two more are in the queue, this pair marked-up to Henbrandt, but likely to be the same poorly printed ones we saw a while back in various packagings.

 

Three Disney Princesses, these were definitely from a large basket of such stuff, in a Charity Shop in Camberley, obviously ex-shop, or other 'stock' (NOS in feebleBay parlance), and probably from capsule dispensers of some kind, but could be off a Disney Store hook-tree?

 

While I vaguely remember these, as larger rope/string-dolls, enjoying a brief 'craze' of popularity back in the 1990's (?) As they came with the above Princesses, in a similar quantity, capsule stock, or something more independent is the likelier for both, than the Disney Stores thought, but never rule out what you can't disprove!

 

Two semi-deforms from a while ago, probably the DEBRA shop in Fleet, more Fortnite franchised stuff, and with quite a bit of dust on them, some age, a few years on a shelf at least, rather like the Skibidi Toilet stuff, a youth-culture which has grown, almost organically, away from the figure collection hobby.

 

They look like the kind of quite expensive stuff you find in those funny little t-shirt/gaming/metal 'head' shops in the quieter corners of shopping malls? But as cheap buys in a charity shop, provide 'reference samples' I'm in no hurry to add to.

 

Another Wimsey from Wade on the right, we've seen the one playing with a ball of wool before, but this one looks like it's foil, waiting a chance to grab the ball! On the left two resin, cartoon cats, with kittens, from crafty/gifty shops rather than jewellers I suspect, but maybe both sources? And I believe they are Peter Fagan sculpts from Scotland.

M is for May's Visit - Purchases

So, back to May, and a visit to London, to pick up some stuff Peter had found, saved or got at a car-boot for me, but while I was there we dived into a couple of shops on the journey to/from the Toy Project charity shop, and I managed to find a couple of things of interest.

 

The pictures say it better than I can, on this one! A couple of daft animals on motorcycles (not 'cars'?), which are neither terribly cartoony nor caricatures, or any kind of licensed character, more like realistic big-heads, so heading straight to charity, where they will find similar trike-mounted dinosaurs, currently in Poundland!

 

But a nice bag of model animals with four of the 'big 5' (tiger instead of leopard) and other iconic ones including North American (Grizzly) and Asian (Panda) animals, along with some useful scenic items, and a strange modular base, which looks like it might interlock with some of those white-button vehicle track-ways?!

 

Probably a generic with a phantom-branding to Toey Play®, who have a presence on platforms like Amazon, but aren't on the Animal wiki's so are probably other recognised Chinese manufacturer/s products? But, for such a big box, it was cheap as chips in an anonymous general store.

 

These, seem to be very good for what they are, which is dirt-cheap rack-toys ffromKandy Toys, certainly both compatible with and of equal quality to the current Tomy-Britains or New Ray stuff (where I think they may from, or be copies of), so, if you're into farm animals, look them out?

 

I also bought a few bits at the Toy Project, but I broke them down and photographed them with all the figures in Peter's box of bits, for me, so they will be sprinkled through the next series of posts, but you can spot paratroops, Phidal's and board game pieces!

L is for Last May's Lots of Lovely Loot - Dr. Barnado's Collecting House

One of the odder things to have happened at a show, where coincidence often occurs, or things you are only half looking for, happen to turn up was, my purchase of this little piece of social history, manufactured in papier-mâché, it's actually survived remarkably well. Scaled to a vague 25/30mm and sitting well'ish with Airfix'x old Lineside houses - the Dr. Barnardo's collection-box!

Sadly a victim of the development (under Thatcher and the post-thatcher years) of a propensity to steal these, or similar collection vessels from counter tops, by swiping. You won't find any survivors still in use now, but when I was a kid, these were pretty ubiquitous, often sharing shelf or counter space with the collection 'jars' of several other charity causes. The few survivors tend to be substantial plastic, chained to the counter or a nearby wall, and usually a lone/chosen cause per-premises!

I wanted one because of the cross-over with the Britains Lilliput and other scenic accessories, by W. Horton (or Hugar?) and had just been discussing with Adrian, Christian and Gareth, the fact that I had been looking for one, without luck, for years, and that I'd never found one on evilBay, when I saw this (literally, seconds later) near-perfect one on Ann Evan's table for a reasonable sum, and immediately grabbed it, expecting the gods to tap me on the shoulder and demand their pound of flesh!

K is for a King Does Not a Republic Make!

I bought this in the Phillis Tuckwell charity shop in Farnham on Tuesday, I have to say the Phillis Tuckwell shop in Farnham has some very, very, very smart stock, lots of old collectables, stamps and ephemera, white elephant, ceramics, fabrics and clothing, old toys (a tray of good condition Yesteryear's), I could have spent a fortune, but this was in the window, and while not cheap, is near perfect, so I settled on this.

 

For reasons, I WILL bore you with another day, this is how you are supposed to display a chess set for sales purposes, one of each piece in one colour and a pawn from the opposing side. The set is bone, not ivory, I do have an ivory set or two, and one day we'll have a mini season on chess sets, but for now, these happen to be in front of me!

 

Exquistely hand-made threads on all the base discs, and several sections of the Kings and Queens, I don't know if these are a Napoleonic POW's work, or something more commercial, or later? I suspect something a little more modern, as the joins are all tight, unlike earlier sets, where some threads can be quite loose. Suggesting the maker had a jig, if not a modern tap & die set?

 

You can tell it's bone, at a glance, none of the warmth of ivory, nor yellowing with age/handling, and clear striations in the material, along with some rough areas like this crown underside, all easy clues to it being bone rather than ivory.

 

The greatest variation is in the Pawns where some look visually quite different, simply by being a millimetre higher, or a little fatter or thinner, and I think one Castle (first image above) may be a replacement, but it's quite a good, sympathetic one, just a slightly shallower battlement/longer neck.

 

The black side was fully coloured before fiddling cleaned/wore the threads. I suspect the whole side has been 'enhanced' with a marker pen, and at some point I will give them an alcohol dip and rinse, to remove anything like that, and then either re-stain with old India ink, or rub melted boot-polish into them with an old toothbrush, and buff with a soft cloth! Nice find!

A is for the Absent Minded Beggar; A Gentleman in Kharki

I said we'd return to this subject a few weeks ago when looking at the lead version, we also looked at the casein one a few years ago, here, and at that time I vaguely said "Believed to be a Boer War keepsake/trinket", well, the history is actually far more interesting, and the Britains lead one is the more 'accurate' while the apparently commoner surviving plastic one is not strictly the 'Gentleman in Kharki' but is the 'Absent Minded Beggar'

 

This (the subsequent Britains pose/sculpt) is the artistic rendition of the Absent Minded Beggar, by the artist Richard Caton Woodville, which was titled A Gentleman in Kharki, a generic called-up reservist, off to fight in the Second Boer War, taken from the poem by Rudyard Kipling, which would be set to music by Sir Arthur Sullivan (of Gilbert & Sullivan fame), all of which was part of a charity drive to provide for the families of those reservists, who were left behind, losing their only bread-winner to the war-effort - almost a precursor of the later Haig Fund.

 

A quick Googling reveals many renditions of both sculpts, but with this, the Gentleman in Kharki, being the more common in other materials, here the tin-plate clock revealing the budget or affordable nature of a larger piece, while more figural spoons can be found, than the plaque example above, alongside mugs, cups, medals (medallions) and many other typical fund-raising pieces.

 

The original poem having been donated by Kipling to the fund, set up by Alfred Harmsworth, proprietor of the Daily Mail. And ephemera featuring the poem/song lyrics/musical score make up a large portion of the surviving material.

 

While the casein renditions of The Absent Minded Beggar, the original subject of the poem, before Woodville's image became more widely known, were also used in a number of domestic objects, alongside a naval rating (to balance the thing!), although, as we can see from the vesta case and visitors card-holder, the Gentleman in Kharki got casein renditions too!

 

I now have one of my own in the pile, and he has been separated from whatever trinket, novelty or household item he might have been attached to (possibly the letter-opener?), and as can be seen in the previous, old auction-image, the tip of the rifle rarely survives; if I ever see a damaged one going cheap, I may purchase it, just to cut-out a sliver to restore mine?

The two together, on the left The Absent Minded Beggar in polymerised milk-powder, on the right A Gentleman in Kharki in very toxic, pre-Health & Safety 'white metal'! Britains ommited (for production reasons?) the fallen helmet seen on larger versions of the scalpt and all the casein examples.

 

I don't think a maker has been identified for the casein one, but it certainly looks as if one producer made them all and sold them to aftermarket firms who put them on plinths, pincushions, pen-holders, ink-wells, servant-summoning bells and etcetera?

The story - as known - and the poem is on Wikipedia

 

Nowadays - of course - we tend to say Khaki (without the 'r') and Daily Fail, Pail, Pale or Wail, it being, now, a nasty little tabloid rag, outpouring faux-outrage to give less-educated, meat-faced gammons a reason to vote Reform and undermine democracy, while keeping the new owners relatively tax-free!