The Great Toy Expedition: A Spring Auction
Lot 274:
Description
A uniquely rare late-Victorian mechanical horse-drawn walking driver automaton toy, most commonly produced in Germany in the Nuremberg and Sonneberg region between about 1880 and 1900. The figure features a bisque head boy with inset eyes, blonde curly hair, and a tin hat, dressed in a linen outfit with frills and having wooden hands and feet. The horses appear to be hollow cast lead and are mounted with an exposed wire galloping mechanism and early spring motor box. The gearbox is deeply stamped “J C” inside a rounded-corner square with a small dot in each corner on the bottom plate, a marking that strongly suggests a German subcontract mechanism maker from the Sonneberg or Nuremberg toy industry of the late 1800s. When wound, the gearbox drives the wheels, makes the horses gallop, and turns a secondary small wheel that moves the boy’s feet, pulling him along as if walking behind the horses. We have tested it and found it to be working for us. The gearbox has been glued to keep it together, but otherwise, everything appears to be original. It measures approximately 12" L x 3" W x 7" H.
Condition: GOOD
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