She's been smacked-to-life with an
ugly-stick I'm afraid and in the hollow of her whole (an unfortunate phrase - I'll grant you!), she is clearly marked TALY (the 'I' miss-registered) and 2/6.
She is a soft latex rubber, even a PVC or an early silicon-rubber, and is clearly a Precepi
(Nativity) figure of Mary, mother of the Little Baby Jesus.
Now . . . here's the thing; the 2/6 can't
be two-of-six, as she isn't holding the LBJ, so with a Joseph that's three?
Which, if the count is six leaves room for either three wise men, or a shepherd
and two something's? The minimum count of a nativity is seven - if Mary holds
the LBJ or eight if the LBJ is in a manger, basket, beer-crate or shoe-box.
While as far as I can remember from my trips
to Italy pre-Euro, they didn't have a sub-coinage, they only had Lira? Even if
they had a sub-coin, two Lira and six-something's wouldn't buy you a sneeze at
the time, while this figure would have cost you, what; 25 or 30p (?) in the UK
in the seventies?
Go back to the sixties and the Ⱡ2.06-something's (cents?) won't buy half a sneeze, but this figure
might be two-shillings-and-sixpence in Britain, which - following
decimalisation - would become 25-30p in 1970? The evidence would appear to
suggest this figure, although clearly Italian was mould-marked - exclusively - for
the UK market?
Anyone know who carried it? Have you got
this set, are they all priced individually? Anyone recognise the Italian
maker/sculpt? Did they go elsewhere with other mould-marks? Was there an unpriced version? The rubber seems too-soft for Landi
or Chromoplasto types, so any info
gratefully received.
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