A Very Large Collection of German Manufactured Composition Toy Soldiers by Elastolin and Lineol, c. 1920-1940, from The Great War, including both German and Allied forces, arranged in an early 20th century curved glass oak table top case with mirror back by the Nashville Show Case Company, height 14 in., width 6 ft., depth 27 in. E9000/12000 The front line of the case depicting allied trenches teaming with soldiers, artillery, flags, exploding bombs, two near barren saplings, wounded, medics, and a rode sign for Verdun ('Il ne passe pas Verdun") with the German trenches, battlement, and bunker in the background of the case; the right side of the case having a German command dugout and aid station in English hands. The collection includes American "doughboys", English, French, Italian and German and Prussian officers, soldiers and medics as well as a tin tank, a small German and a small French tin airplane, cannon, machine guns, trench mortar, field guns, spandu, wagons, gas and signal units and search lights. The vast array of soldiers include flame throwers, those tossing grenades or charging with rifles and bayonets. Many soldiers are wearing gas masks. There are motorcycle couriers, map readers, range finders, wireless operators, flag bearers, wounded, stretcher bearers, doctors, nurses, gunners, lookouts with binoculars. The Germans have a carrier pigeon cage and soldier with pigeon, German shepherds, horses, and an accordion player and campfire, etc. approx. 300 pieces. The back interior of the case is decorated with a vertical color lithograph of a bucolic French landscape and a small color print of a zeppelin. The back of the case is decorated with an Allied Expeditionary Forces postcard from a member of Company "C", 327th Infantry: "The ship on which I sailed has arrived safely overseas". And a piece of sheet music of the patriotic war edition of "The Rose of No Man's Land" (words by Jack Caddington; music by James A. Brennan and two souvenir or patriotic flags: an American silk flag (8 x 11 inches) and a French cotton flag (9 x 15 inches) and a dust jacket from the book All Quiet on the Western Front are also pinned to the back of the case. A wartime French black and white photograph postcard depicting a young boy playing with toy soldiers in the foreground with a French soldier in the trenches in the background "Accept my father from your very dear child hugs and kisses tenderly sent." accompanies the lot. Note: The O&M Hauser (Elastolin) company, founded in 1904 in Ludwigsberg in Southern Germany, and Lineol, founded by Oskar Wiederholz in 1905 in Brandenburg/Havel, were the two most prominent makers of toy soldiers. These firms were major competitors. They had the bulk of the worldwide composition soldier. For more than 50 years they produced a vast array of the highest quality soldiers and associated military tin plate toys and trenchworks. It is interesting to note that both companies also manufactured a wide range of "civilian" figures, animals, barnyard scenes, castles, forts, zoo scenes, railway sets and Christmas scenes. Both firms were among the major exporters of Christmas creche scenes throughout the world, particularly to the United States. Contrary to popular belief, these non-military items constituted the majority of the pieces made. The method of making such figures derived from materials used in European doll manufacturing since 1850. The process is quite simple. A multi- part, accurately machined brass mold is prepared and a cereal-like mixture of wood flour, kaolin and animal glue is hand-pressed into both halves. A skeleton is inserted of thin wire having been bent to the proper shape by hand. The molds are then joined, air-dried and then heated for a time, to cure the figures. After cooling, the figures were removed from the mold and, while still slightly flexible, trimmed by hand and hand-painted. While factory painters were used, most of the figures were painted at home by "kitchen labor" on a piece work basis, according to strict painting instructions and standards laid down by the manufacturer. From the earliest production known, the basic figures were made without heads. The head would be made separately in appropriate national headdress and inserted before painting. This meant that thousands of varieties of figures were possible. The basic body, for almost all figures, was a German one. The distinguishing features were the head and the way the figure was painted. The years from 1932-1942 can be called the "golden age" of composition figures and related toys, since it was during this period particularly that the marvelous tin plate vehicles, cannon and horse- drawn items made by Hausser, Lineol and Tipp & Co., were produced. O'Brien, Richard Collecting Foreign-Made Toy Soldiers, Identification and Value Guide (Krause Publications, Iola, WI, 1997), pp.368-379. Mr. Dave Dugas, Le Petit Soldier Shop, 528 Rue Royale, New Orleans. Mr. Codman Parkerson, The Quest, 3118 Magazine Street, New Orleans.