The significance of those photographs being the tying of Festival
and Gem together, not pertaining to these; which puts these in the 'up for grabs' category
and eminently likely to be the/any missing Charbens
cake decorations.
Seen here before (as have been the other
set below, but sometimes things are worth a second visit, with new imagery)
there seem to be the five figures; Adult middle-aged male, old lady, pre-teen
and a small boy and girl, I say 'seems' as no bagged or packeted set has been
seen (to my knowledge) so the exact contents remain unknown, but only these
five have turned-up, often together as a quintet.
Equally it's unclear if the two older males
are holding presents or lanterns, given the slightly Dickensian dress, I favor
the latter; a couple of glass-lined, iron-cage, candle boxes. Also the 'choir-master'
goes quite well with those AWI cake decorations, perhaps drumming-up support for the
insurgency by reading the Declaration of Independence!
Colour variation could point to a long run
over some time, or just 'the two' out-painters competing with each other! I
favour the former likelihood, they do turn up about as often as average Gem or Culpitt's stuff. Note also the two sculpts of the mid-sized boy.
However, back to the Charbens thing, they are glossier than typical Charbens, although that could have something to do with
food-hygiene, chalk, talc or other additives of the type used for paint
adhesion being also prone to bacteriological contamination through migration.
And further arguing against myself (or just
arguing 'with' myself), the two dimples or depressions on some of the bases
(usually assumed to be mould-release pin-marks) are more like similar markings
from the mould-banks of Hilco or Cherilea?
The same size variation and base-marks are
to be found on the other likely-candidate set, which we looked at here not that
long ago I think? Noticed since I last shot them - is that the
clown-dwarf-'little person' has a spigot for his left hand, presumably for
attaching to a missing 'thing'; ball, umbrella, another clown?
I don't think that bringing the two
collections together has improved this line-up since last time and unlike the
pretty-well set, five-count of the choir, the full contents of this set are unknown
to me and may well be quite a few more?
Again arguing against them being Charbens, why didn't they copy items
from their substantial circus set in 54mm, which was itself - in part - taken
from the earlier hollow-cast range, and by a company who both reused poses and
weren’t above a bit of plagiarism (Timpo
GI's)?
However the plastic on most of mine and
some of the slightly flat sculpting is very Charbens? The elephant is a copy of Britains 54mm hollow-cast baby one, which ties us back in with the hunting set? The clown on the ball seems to be vaguely familiar too . . . American slush-cast?
To sum up the two posts
Hunt 1 - From lead-solid imports - Could be
Hilco - 3 items known
Hunt 2 - From Britains Lilliput - Could be Britains
- 5 items (6 per bag - 2 dogs)
Carol-singing Choir - Could be Cherilea or Hilco - 5 items
Circus - Could be Cherilea or Hilco -
unknown contents-count
But one or all of them MIGHT be the missing
Charbens' cake decorations.
The pink bases of the circus would seem to
suggest (given the mores of the time) that they were aimed at girls, the hunt/s
would be aimed at boys cakes and the choir covers Christmas . . . that's a
small range with three or four lines!
And you watch; I bet branded stuff comes
out of the woodwork now; Charbens or
not!
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