F is for Found Objects - Five of . . . Merchandise

Except there's only four, but the titles are playing their own game, as some of may have noticed!

 

Another thematic one now, to which I've added some non-found objects content to stretch the post out, and again we seem to be firmly in Christmas or Christmassy territory, although some of this stuff is all-year-round gift shop fayre!

 

Tins, specifically, tins which look like houses, or buildings, although, to disprove the rule the instant I establish it, one is just a couple of Pooh Bear images! But it is house shaped and both had rather old tea-bags in, which went on the garden some time ago; it's all good compost/soil conditioner!

The Pooh one, it is what it is!

 

But this, obviously commissioned by Waitrose supermarkets (part of the John Lewis group), almost certainly at/for the Christmas season is charming, showing something akin to the original store (Waite, Rose & Taylor . . . what did Taylor do to be excised?) as a wrap-around artwork.

Scaled around the 25/28mm mark, it would be a shoo-in for old-school wargaming, just plonk it down and declare the area built-up/the high street! I don't know if this had tea, chocolate or sweets in? Something else?

While I shot these in TKMaxx a year ago, both were tea containers I think, German? The same roof/lid but one a two-story Southern German municipal building (Rathaus Teabagg), the other more of a Wilhelminian town-house over three floors! That's it; a bit of fun!

T is for Two - Tinny-tin Tins from Tinslyvania!

Or; N is for Nostalgia - Look what I found! There's actually all sorts of stuff coming out of the woodwork, and not just from my late Mother's effects, I've started finding stuff I've not seen since it went into storage, or even things I couldn't remember having! But here's two tins, which are interesting for very different reasons, a third title could have been F is for From the Sublime to the Ridiculous!

My Grandfather's Princess Mary's Christmas Fund tin, 1914, not exactly rare, but some of the prices on feeBay, for poorer examples, suggests this is worth a half-dozen of your Herald swoppet knights, on horseback, equally, you can find copies for 15 or 20-quid! Issued to various groups and tranches of service men and women from 1914 onward, I won't bore you with the whole tale; you can read it all here - IWM.

The contents of Granddad's tin; the pipe has been used, and I guess the longer stem was his own and just kept in the tin as  a spare/fall-back? The tobacco pouch is missing, along with the photo's seen in the above link, but I know I've seen the little one of Princess Mary, and possibly the one of the King and Queen, while sorting so we will return to this as I reassemble it more fully in the future.

Indeed I know I have the bullet-pencil in my own collection (and always wondered whose 'cap badge' it was - it was sold to me by the late Eddie Audsley - vintage tool expert - as Trench-Art), the cards are in the envelope and we'll look at them in a minute, but the piece of scrap-metal is more interesting.

A direct translation of the German Brennstoft Übernahmevent is 'fuel takeover event' which I suspect transliterates to fuel cut-off valve? Something like that; fuel safety valve, and presumably came from an enemy vessel? But who's and when? 

Granddad served first on HMS London supporting the ANZAC landings in the Dardanelles ('Gallipoli'), where gunboat activity is known to have occurred, and mostly (early) German vessels re-flagged to the Ottoman's but with German crews or - at the least - German officers?

Equally there was activity in the Mediterranean in support of the Italian fleet, where again Motor Torpedo Boats and Motor Gunboats played a part on all sides, while the final hostilities of that period was Granddad's apparent participation (vessel currently unknown) in the Russian campaign of 1919, where both (all!) sides lost, captured or sank motorboats which might have been supplied by Germany, or taken from them in 1918?

And I'm only looking toward the smaller vessels as they would be most likely to have fuel cut-off valves (or their labels) easy to hand for a quick removal with a sharp implement for keepsake/trophy purposes?

The cigarette packet is quite small, now . . . I wondered if that was for space, or budget, but suspect they were often (even commonly?) smaller than the ones we are used to now, filters weren't introduced widely until after the Second World War, but it's about a half of the mass of a modern pack of filterless Camels - which this author has had cause to persevere-with, in the past, when filtered ones weren't around!

The two cards; and two points of note; firstly while the 1915 card is shown on the above Imperial War Museum link (and in the excellent primer - Tommy’s War: British Military Memorabilia 1914-1918 by Peter Doyle), neither source explains how a second (or subsequent?) card/s was/were issued/received once the recipient had been given his or her 2014 tin. Now I get that if your tin was one of the late ones, you might get a card for whichever year you received it, but how did you get a second, and why do they all seem to be '14 or '15, where are '16 and 1917 cards?

The other point is a bit darker, the dropping of 'Happy Christmas' from the later card; clearly someone pointed out, to the committee organising the fund, that it was impossible to have a happy Christmas under fire in a trench full of mud, rats and body-parts? Or on an Atlantic convoy looking for submarines which were looking for you, in an ice-storm? So the epithet was shortened to 'Victory' wishes only!

Anyway, that's the sublime, now I'll lower the tone considerably, with the ridiculous!

I found this in the garage; modern archeology -  Knickers in a Tin! I vaguely remember Mum's rather flighty Canadian friend Janet (of Perrier premium fame) giving it to her for a laugh one Christmas when we were quite little (Janet also took Playgirl magazine!), and it became a staple of my Mother's breakdown-kit, moving from car to car, and thence, eventually, to a damp garage where the conditions have faded all but the British Knickers, so I can't tell who made it, or when, but I think you can still get such stuff in Anne Summers or other adult outlets, as Stag or Hen gifts?

Realising it was to all intents and purposes gash now, I took the trusty army tin-opener to it, to finally reveal the supposed risqué contents . . .

. . . only to find slightly twee knickers, with a Union flag overprint on some indestructible faux-silk, metallic blue, granny-pants! What's left of the tin will be weighed-in with the next lot of scrap metal and the knickers have already gone to the clothing bank! More tins to come.

H is for How They Come In - Week 18 - 2 Other Military

We're starting with the money box (known as money banks over the pond), which doubles as a 'bissquit' tin, well, it's primary goal is one of protecting biscuits, the saving of money is the novelty 'added value' afterthought!

I did send this to Moonbase's recent season on the subject, which continues apace with a tram added the other day (I might have a bus somewhere, but buried deep in the garage I fear) , however and in the meantime I had found out a little more about it, so we'll have another look now!

I wondered from the shape if it might have contained the dry crackers for cheese, but on reflection suspect it may have been shortbread, aimed at the tourist market, it obviously bearing the likenesses of several ceremonially-attired British troops, namely a Coldstream Guardsman (paired buttons), Royal Marine bandsman/drummer, a Yoman Warder 'Beefeater' from the 'white' Tower of London and a member of the ceremonial 'Kings Troop' of the Royal Horse Artillery (RHA).

Issued by Huntley & Palmer, a local firm here, down the road in Reading (I well remember the smell!)* it is apparently the third in a series, issued in 1971 it followed the pattern of tins originally issued in 1910 and 1914 (hence the 'apparently', it's such a big gap to the third design, one feels there may have been interim designs?).

*Reading had two smells when I was a kid, the H&P factory's wonderful baking sugar and bread smells and - in the centre of town - the sour, stick-in-your-throat smells of the brewery!

The plastic roof was the innovation on the 1971 version, as was the money-slot and all three sentry boxes are on Reading Museum's website (which is why I suddenly know so much about them!) and the earlier two can be seen here;

1910 - Huntley & Palmer's tin - Sentry Box

1914 - Huntley & Palmer's tin - Sentry Box

I've had an email exchange with Matthew Williams at the museum, and after lockdown they will look at adding images of the other sides of the tins, as while it will be interesting to see who's on the other sides of the 1910 tin, more interesting will be who - if anyone - replaces Germany on the 1914 tin?

[06-06-2020 - In fact the notes have already been updated to reflect that fact, Germany was replaced with Belgium! But the RHA is still described as a Hussar. Oh, and it's the 76th anniversary of D-Day today!]

The marking however, is an HBS, which was for many years an independent 'arm' of the biscuit makers started and run by one of the sons; Huntley, Boorne and Stevens, although eventually it was brought in-house, it will - for half a century or more - have also supplied tins and tin-plate goods/components to other customers around Britain and across the 'Empire' - as was.

Other ceremonial or historical figures in Chris's donation include the large guardsman who goes with the previously seen Guards officer and RHA trooper, but this time is based with the full set of Tringa Toy marks including a date; 2004, showing how quickly things which are 'It's still in the shops' current production, become 'Blimey, it's over 15 years old' collectables, purly by dint of the inexorable march of time!

He's missing what I have half a recollection was an SA80, and I think I may have one in the loose weapons zone, from another mixed lot as some point? If I can marry them up we'll have another look at them all-together, as they (three and a sentry box) have all been donated to the Blog (Chris Smith and Peter Evans) for showing to you, loyal readers!

Due only to the delay in getting these posts out, we now know - from the recent plumping of Plastic Warrior magazine No.179 onto our door-mats that the Herald clones are from the Argentine company Oklahoma, we looked at another a while ago (from Adrian I think - another officer with sword?), however, the mag' shows the ACW bugler was also given the Argentinian Army make-over!

The other three are an Esci gunner, a small Highlander 'mocherette' and another Highlander, who may have been removed from a pop-up toy and wired, but Chris suggested he may be an old, damaged earring? I think there's millage in that.

Medievals; Both Chris and I suspect Poland for the rider, the under-paint polemer is very 'Polish' and I have a memory of seeing plain, gold-paint foot figures attributed to Poland somewhere? The little guy may be a war-gaming figure, but I suspect either a board game or a touristy thing; another 'mocherette' anyway! While the archer is Wild Republic (K&M).

I placed him on a spare horse - also in Chris's donation, and if you think the angles poor for getting a handle on the horse, we'll look at it again in the Wild West shots! It's not the rider's horse, but looks the part of a tough little steppe-pony!

Many, many-thanks again to Chris for sending us all these and next-up; Wild West, Prehistoric and Civilians!