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!

S is for Shelfies - Smyths

I was actually in Smyths the other day looking for Halloween stuff (there was none) and the displays were pretty-much the same as these shelfies, which I actually shot back in August, but which I didn't get around to posting in Rack Toy Month, so, basically - all still available from Smyths!

This has previously been seen in B&M, seems to be a generic, but similar to HGL / HTI stuff we saw here a few years ago, I think I now have some of these in the loose stash courtesy of Jon Attwood's donations or charity-shop bags?

 

These are the sort of thing which will start turning-up in charity bags in about 18-months time, so worth knowing, simply to attribute, at a later date; Epoch Games, also gets them in the Tag-list! Seems to be a variation of Buckaroo or the old load-a-camel game!

 

Unbranded generic here, and again the dinosaurs look familier?

A full display of Schleich, with fantasy, dinosaurs, wild and domestic animals, both boxed and single-pick items. You can't fault the attention to detail and realism, but the price takes them out of the reach of poorer kids, in a way Britains didn't really?

Just Play have these out at the moment, there have been so many chunky vinyls of Disney's main characters, there's a book to be written on them at some point, in the meantime this will help ID five of the many thousands!

Pokemon blisters and boxes, again several ranges over the years, all quite small scale, and running to many characters/poses, I think these were Mindstorm Toys, but probably licensed from Tomy or Mattel, both of whom have had the properties for twenty/thirty-odd years now?

Cartoon characters in Hot Wheels cars . . . and things! A perennial favourite with younger kids, I have a small self-published tome in the library by a Don Elliot (Comic Character Cars), which covers these up to the 1980's, from many makers!

Finishing-up this batch with bubble-liquid bottles topped-off with hatching dinosaur eggs!

T is for Two - Rocketry

 I seem to have a whole bunch of images from two Sandown's which have - in the case of the earlier show - already been dipped into, and with several donation posts still in the queue, I'm just going to use piecemeal, as part of the oddments-folder plundering, or like this as a quick box-ticker!

Although box ticking is a bit rich for these two, both picked-up at the show two weeks ago, as they are more gap-filling detritus than box-tickers, yet. still, some boxes will be ticked, if you know what I mean!

On the left is an almost certainly incomplete pen-case or holder, while on the right is one of the rockets from the Mettoy 'Tank Battle Game', more on which below. Both cheap as chips, I think total outlay was £5.50p?

 

The pen-case is definitely missing a few pens, and seems to be missing some kind of central pole or mechanism, but it's not clear what, and Google has only found similar things, but not the same thing!

 

The three part tail includes a grey disc of plastic which is somehow connected to the free-spinning fin section, through the cup, but free spins itself, too, and I can't separate them without apparently doing damage, and you wonder at the smaller cup at the nose end of the rocket and what it might do, in relationship to the tail assembly, or not?

I'm pretty sure the pens are the commonly seen (back in the 1970's) generics from geometry sets, knock-off spirograph's and the like, so I may have some in the pen-zone (oh, yeah! Things we haven't even contemplated here yet!), so I might be able to replace the missing colours - a red and some blues?

[image removed!]

Courtesy of Vectis Auctions (their Christmas Toy Soldier auction is pending, but I didn't notice anything exciting, unless you're looking for boxed Timpo buildings and/or farm sets), this inage is the set the smaller red rocket belongs to, the mechanism is the same as the Tri-Ang Battle Space rocket-launcher, so it may well be fireable from the rail-car. But despite being the same company, they designed a new one for another toy, rather than reusing stock!

 

Right, that was all bullshit! Racing to publish before I went to work - in biblical weather! Actually the two Lines Group rockets were the same fat-nosed one (mettoy game and Triang train-set), so they did reuse, and the person who told me they were 'from that game' must have been mistaken or thinking of something else, which leaves my second guess as it's being a Solido or similar 'unknown rocket'? Suffice to say, this post is now two unknown rockets!

L is for The Longest Yarn - Breakout & Aftermath

I went round the exhibition alongside a couple, with whom I got talking, as we danced round each-other, giving space for photographs to be taken or spending a slightly longer or shorter time lingering over a specific scene, and the lady was saying she had her Father's log-book, from his time serving as a landing-craft captain/pilot. He and his crew crossed the English Channel 50-odd times between D-Day and December 1944 - roughly, a four day cycle.

 

Among the more obvious military cargos, and returning casualties, was the fact that he did several laundry-runs, not something one would consider, but with the initial breakout being followed by another11-months of hard fighting across Northern France, the Low Countries and into Germany, laundry for hundreds of thousands of troops would have been a very real problem!

Following, very much, the narrative of the book and subsequent film 'The Longest Day' by Cornelius Ryan, one is left wondering, as one sees familiar scenes in the exibition, how many stories, heroes, events and names have been lost in the retelling, but isn't that all history?

 

I can't recommend this highly enough, it's quite an esoteric thing, but done with love, and I would urge anyone who gets the chance, to get along and view it. I will try to keep an eye on its progress and report any new dates, but for now these are the one's pencilled-in for the near future;

 

November 21st - December 5th 2024

Stoke Minster, Glebe St., Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, ST4 1LP

 

December 7th - January 10th 2025

Tewksbury Abbey, Church Street, Tewksbury, Gloucestershire, GL20 5RZ

January 13th - February 8th 2025

St, Makartins Church, Church Street, Enniskillen, BT74 7DW

February 10th - March 1st 2025

Norwich University of East Anglia

2nd Air Division Memorial Library, Millennium Plain, Norwich, Norfolk, NR2 1TF

March 3rd - April 1st 2025

Peterborough Cathedral, Minster Precinct, Peterborough, Northamptonshire, PE1 1DX

April 25th 2025 - ? (TBC)

NAS Wildwood Aviation Museum

500 Forrestal Road, Cape May, New Jersey, NJ 08204, USA

(www.usnasw.org)

 

Cheack dates before travelling!