Collector's Guide to Model Tin Figures

Ortmann, Erwin

ISBN 10: 0289703409 / ISBN 13: 9780289703403

Published by Studio Vista, 1974

About this Item

HARDBACK SHIPPED FROM THE UK* Edition: 1st. Thus.* Impression: 1st.* Date of Publication: 1974* Publisher: * Binding and cover condition: Grey textured cloth, black title with small red logo to spine and black design to face. Very slight bumps to top corners. No rubs, no other visible faults. VG+ * Jacket condition: Colour illustrated dust wrapper. NOT PRICE CLIPPED, showing shelf price of £7.50. Some shelf wear to top & bottom edges and to head & tail of spine. Lightly creased. Slight chips and one short tear to base of spine now re-inforced & in protective jacket. VG* Contents condition: PRIVATE COPY NOT EX-LIBRARY. Black and white silhouettes to end papers. Clean, crisp, tight and bright with no reading wear, no marks to text, no visible faults. FINE.* Illustrations: Colour & b/w photos, prints and line drawings throughout.* Pages: 191 pp. text. ix pp. appendices, list of museums, associations, bibliography, sources of illustrations & acknowledgements at rear.* Description: This well illustrated guide to Tin Figures discusses not only tin soldiers but other tin figures as well. It gives a detailed history of the subject, beginning in ancient times, and following developments through the medieval period and into the heyday of German manufacture, with attention paid to the famous Nuremberg and Furth workshops; The majority of the book is concerned with the history of tin soldiers, but there is also some information on the making, painting, and collecting of tin figures and the modern military miniaturist.* A NEAR VG+ copy of the 1st./1st. with some jacket and cover faults reducing it to VG now in protected jacket.* This is a heavy book and the asking price includes a small extra contribution to the costs of carriage.* 1974-09-19.

Seller Inventory # 690

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Collector's Guide to Model Tin Figures
• Publisher: Studio Vista
• Publication Date: 1974
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0289703409
• ISBN 13: 9780289703403
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: y 1st. Edn, 1st. Imp.
• Condition: VG+/ VG++/VG
• Seller catalogs:
  • Antiques
  • Collecting

About this title

Synopsis

For countless generations, regiments of toy soldiers have waged imaginary war in the nursery. But only recently have the often faultless replicas been accorded by adults the attention they so richly deserve - not as relics of childhood, but as works of art. Collectors have, in the main, so far devoted themselves to the round lead soldiers often known as French "solids", rather than their forbears and cousins, the German "flats"; this book is the first detailed account in English of the skill and intricacy with which flat tin figures were, and still are, produced.

The tin figure had its origins in the workshops of the artist-craftsmen of Nuremberg in the eighteenth century. In the first half of the book, the author carefully pieces together the history of the tin figure from its inception to the present day, and places it within the wider context of model figures generally, complementing verbal description with a rich selection of illustrations. In the second part of the book he gives an account of their production - how they are engraved, cast and painted - and includes a section on the problems of collecting, whether for teaching purposes, in single pieces, or (most popular today) for dioramas and War Gaming.

The Collector's Guide to Model Tin Figures is a book which no devotee of these fascinating objects can afford to be without. It is an authoritative and invaluable guide to a medium whose high standards have gone unrecognized for far too long.

Erwin Ortmann, a journalist in Weimar, has been interested in model figures since boyhood and has written numerous articles on this subject in journals. His personal collection of model figures totals nearly 100,000 and he is a
leading member of the G.D.R. collector's association. He has also practised every stage in the production of model figures, and has built dioramas and arranged exhibitions for museums.