D is for Dusyma - Ertzgibirge Salesman's Sample Case

And so to the lovely thing I flagged-up on Friday, sent to the blog by Joe Walton of the USA, Joe found me on Google through the 'Erzgebirge' tag (obviously posting 'plastic smalls' and pencil toys for eleven years is starting to pay off, lesson there for someone, but a bit late I fear), and was looking for more information on the rigid case he'd acquired and which we saw closed in the last-but-one 'Forthcoming' post.

Two keys, one will be a spare, but the fact they've been kept together suggests the possibility of a bit of theatricality on the part of the salesman, grandly opening both at once with all the flourish of an early J. Bond about to put a secret sniper-rifle together!

Opened; it at first provides little in the way of clues! Being covered with a sheet of stiff card with two pull-handles from black ticking, I know it's called ticking because Richard Gere is told by the shop assistant that that's what it's called in the Woman in Red, or was it Mickey Rourke in 9½ Weeks? One of them was buying a bed with ticking!

Open with two keys (and a flourish!), disappoint with a plain cover . . . then the reveal! It would be hard - in the austerity of post-war Europe - to know where to look first as all this colour was revealed in its plethora of little compartments.

We'll look at them all in separate posts, but suffice to say the size of the sample [case], coupled with a small number of aeroplanes and vessels (2 each) point to the whole being a salesman's sample-case, rather than a set.

Under the smaller parts is a second, deeper tray of buildings two of the larger being marked-up as a school and hospital, a third - clearly - a hospital, larger scenics which includes two bridges and a tunnel and some base-boards; meadow, pond and river/stream section.

Some of the larger pieces are marked with an ink-stamp, which represents the interlocking building-blocks the company is still making today.

The company still exists, and the logo is basically the same, but, it seems; partly as a brand, owned by or licensed-to someone in Dubai, where the English Language website is, and seemingly supplied or part-supplied by a factory in Hong Kong.

The German company now being a major wholesaler to the trade with a 1,400-page German-language catalogue of craft, art and educational supplies, toys, game, puzzles and early-learning/teaching aids along with library, classroom and gymnasium furniture, play equipment and stationary, and covering 'rival' brands - Lego, Brio and Schleich - among others.