Another prime piece of plunder from the September Sandown show, and another one where Google's AI failed to provide, as did Google
in general, and doubly annoying as I've only just obtained the Lehmann book, however, it went straight to storage, so I can't read it, but I bet this bit of the history is dealt-with there? Hay-ho, another day!
Artwork is remarkably accurate, compared to many other contemporary or not so contemporary companies packaging, although the figures and cargo are fanciful additions, absent from the contents of the box! Gnom Sortimen (gnome assortment), is the only text, and Gnom was a sub-brand of the East German continuation of Lehmann, after the end of World War Two.
Contents, not played with, totally mint and with no paint-chips of note, but possibly taken-out a few times, as I suspect the truck should be in the separate, card 'corral', rather than the trailer? But similar compartments may be missing for the other items?
A small field gun, a field-kitchen or 'Goulash Canon', which can be limbered with either of the other two towed items, but all three can't be 'trained together', as the larger trailer, and gun, don't have rear facing hooks.
A lovely thing, although
Lehmann purists will tell you these aren't that brilliant, or that
Gnom isn't terribly collectable, but I can't fault it for charm, build quality or playability, and as an East German kid, I think I would have loved to get this under the tree at Christmas, but I guess it represents the oppression, of one of the more insidious regimes of the Eastern-Bloc, given the web of
Stasi infiltration into every-day life, the other side of the wire?
3 comments:
What a great find! I can't imagine anyone denigrating these items. Unique theme...great condition...beautiful (if fanciful) artwork...the confident stamp: MADE IN GERMANY... I never lived in East Germany, but I would have loved these as a kiddo in Texas.
What is the scale? Do you have any production date?
Thanks! Gary in Texas
Thanks for the vote of enthusiasm, Gary, but, well . . . with the book somewhere else, it's all guesswork, but it's probably no earlier than the 1970's, despite the 'look', and as far as I can tell, the West's Lehmann, set up again, but didn't do much with the brand, post war, while the old brand was in the East, and produced some products, before the Gnom era, which may have been short-lived? By reunification, both had sort of faded, but a cousin has apparently restarted the brand. I'm guessing some of the [more recent] output, East, West or Cousin will be in the collector's club stuff from Hawkin/Tobar, and by extension, Schilling, in your neck of the woods, but not this, which is very-much soviet-era, domestic production. But it would have been a pricey thing, not by our standards, but by theirs, party members, trustees, people who had 'purchase' cards for the top stores, there was one on Berlin, Centrum, I went there a few times, it was an odd experience!
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Scale is interesting, as it's small'ish, maybe 1:64th, but toylike, it would go well with 35/40mm figures, but not the huge rubber chaps from PGH Efelder!
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