What's It Worth? — Jane Alexiadis

I’ve recently come across two boxed sets of Britains soldiers. The box for one set is marked 9401; the second is marked 9402. I don’t believe the soldiers, carriages and horses have ever been out of the box. I’m a sports memorabilia collector and don’t have expertise in this area. Can you tell me what they would sell for?

Britains Historical Series 9401 - The Coronation Coach

Toy soldiers have been around ever since there were soldiers to model. By the late 19th century, German manufacturers dominated the market with their solid lead figures but the market was soon to fall to the Britains Company.

Englishman William Britain trained and worked as a clockmaker. Sometime in the 1880s or early 90s he branched out into toy making as the clockwork mechanics are very similar.

According to the obituary his grandson, Dennis Britain, O.B.E, D.F.C.* his grandfather worked for years to perfect a hollow bodied soldier. In hollow casting, molten lead is poured into a mold to form a skin. The excess lead is then poured out leaving a hollow body behind. By eliminated the most costly component of the figures – the lead – the Britains Company was able to sell high quality, highly detailed figures for less money than German counterparts.

By 1893 William Britain entered into contract with Gamages Department store in London to market the figures. The company continued to expand their designs to foreign militaries, farms, Disney characters and even zoo animal. They were adamant about authenticity and quality and soon were the leading lead soldier maker in the world.

In the 1950s inexpensive plastic soldiers began to flood the market. Britains forestalled some of the competition by buying the plastic manufacturer Herald in 1959. After that date the bulk of Britains products were plastic.

Safety regulation outlawed lead solders in 1966 but by 1973 some companies – including Britains - were producing aluminum alloy soldiers. By the early 1980s, Britains was selling their sets as “collectibles” rather than “toys” and were marketing to adults rather than children.

You have two sets that date from the 1950s. The first set is the 1954 issued Coronation Coach. This set includes the coach, the figures of Elizabeth and Duke of Edinburgh, eight Windsor greys with four postillion riders. The second set is the State Open Road Landau. This set includes Elizabeth and the Duke, two coachmen and six greys with three postillion riders. Your sets look immaculate with all of the traces, harnesses and even instructions intact!

Britains Historical Series 9402 - Open Landau

With British Royal fever at its highest point since the early 80s, I’m confident that your two mint in box set of Britains figures would easily bring $300-500 at auction.

*Order of the British Empire, Distinguished Flying Cross

Q. I enjoy your column in the Mercury News and now I have a question. I have inherited a small figurine from dear friends who lived in East Berlin during the cold war. They collected many things while working as intelligence officers for the U.S. They had many great stories of that scary era and one was about this figurine. I remember them saying it was from the mid-1800’s and spoke to a period of depression and food scarcity I think in Germany. I would like to know more and if you could help or direct me I would very much appreciate it.

This Vienna bronze of a well-to-do WWI era woman hides a secret

A. You have an absolutely delightful Vienna Bronze. The term is sort of a catch all for the output of dozens of small foundries producing small works of art from the mid 19th through the mid 20th century. Vienna bronzes are known for their exquisite attention to detail and they often have exotic, humorous or anthropomorphic shapes.

Your bronze is signed Nam Greb and is marked by a letter B in a U-shaped cartouche. This identifies it as having come from the Franz Bergmann foundry in Vienna.

Bergmann used the "Nam Greb" signature (Bergmann backwards) on sculptures considered erotic or risque

Franz Xavier Bergmann (1861-1936) inherited a small foundry from his father and greatly expanded its scope of production, becoming one of the most prolific and well-known creators of bronzes in the Art Nouveau period. The foundry was famous for its depictions of Ottoman style harems, carpet sellers and dancers: the works exhibited superior sculpting, casting and painting. It is not known how many artists worked in the Bergmann foundry, nor is it known which, if any, of the figures were designed by Bergmann himself.

The foundry also produced a number of indecorous erotic sculptures. These nymphs, satyrs, and harem girls were most often concealed within an innocent appearing figure: a hinged skirt might lift to reveal a nude dancer underneath; a turbaned man might open his robes to reveal a sensuous woman. Scholars tend to attribute these to Bergmann himself: conventional wisdom says that the Nam Greb signature (Bergmann spelled backwards) was a way to hide his identify.

Your figure, with a well-dressed woman hiding food under her coat, is one I’d never seen before. Considering the time it was made – somewhere towards the beginning of the First World War – she is a politically charged figure even more taboo than the nudes.

She smuggles a sack of wheat, a string of sausages and a chicken under her coat!

By 1914, Vienna’s population of more than 2 million people imported more than one third of their food. The British embargo in the autumn of 1915 resulted in food shortages and rationing. Consumers could buy no fats on Mondays or Thursdays, no meats on Tuesdays and Fridays, and no wheat on weekends. Your little smuggler hides a string of sausages, a chicken and a sack of wheat - certainly a provocative and mouth-watering haul.

I was not able to find reference material identifying her so I went a different route. First I asked retired machinist Bob Neiderhouser if he could identify the nut bolt holding her to the base: a modern bolt might indicate a reproduction. Bob determined that the nut was hand made and could very well have dated to the early 20th century.

Hand made nut points to the early 20th century

I next asked Chuck Morganstern of Woodchuck Antiques in San Francisco if he had an example like your figure in his collection of Art Nouveau bronzes. He did not but he had seen a version of this figure and was quite sure Bergmann designed it. As Chuck said, “He’s nutty enough to do this - he signs his name backwards and probably had a screw loose.” I was hoping that your sculpture’s scarcity and humor might put it at a higher value than most other Bergmann figures from the time but I was wrong. Aside from his editorializing, Chuck pointed out that your figure needs restoration: she has lost a lot of her original finish. At auction she would sell in the $400-600 range.