Introduction
A few years ago, I penned a couple of articles focussed on William Britains’ efforts to reproduce the famous British Regiment, the Royal Horse Artillery (RHA) in miniature. The articles presented all the various sets that Britains produced from the closing years of the 19th century to the end of hollowcast
production in 1966.1
Set #39 was one of the very first attempts by Britains to reproduce in miniature the British Army (and later many more) in a constant and consistent scale. And what a model it was! The first version of the set portrayed a pretty accurate model of the 15 lbdr, breech loading, field gun. This was then in use by both the RHA and the Royal Artillery (RA). It was a state of the art piece of equipment, deployed by the
army to get artillery support into position with great speed, hauled into action by a team of 6 horses at full gallop. The 1st version produced by Britains depicted the shafted limber used in real life, with 4 gunners seated on the limber itself and the gun. This model must have really captured the imagination of young “wannabe” generals on the playroom floor.
Others were quick to realise the commercial possibilities, and competitors of Britains rushed
out their own attempts to tap into this market. Some were brazen in their attempts to replicate Britains
success, with copies of their models that were soon to result in battles of a different kind.
In particular, Renvoize and Hanks were singled out for a barrage of legal firepower, that was
eventually resolved in court in Britains favour.
A recent C&T auction in the UK turned up a rare example of one of the models that must have been the subject of Britains legal action, the Renvoize version of the RHA. Although I was aware of the existence of such a set, which is discussed in well-known books such as Toy Soldiers by Andrew Rose, I had never seen an example, not even in the form of a photograph. I was therefore fascinated to see the set that C&T put up for sale. This set me to thinking about examples of RHA sets produced by makers other than Britains. This new article sets out my thoughts. The focus here is on British makers during the hollowcast era . The RHA was of course also modeled by other manufacturers such as Heyde and CBG Mignot (not always very successfully!). But that is another story to which we may return at a later date.
The next section begins by focussing on the Renvoize set. Three more sections follow, detailing in turn the efforts of Hanks, Reka / Crescent and BMC. All of these are rare, some exceptionally so!
Renvoize
The set attributed to Renvoize is a blatant copy of the Britains’ set. It is no surprise that they were taken to court. Most of the discussion on the topic of copyright has focussed on sets such as the Imperial Yeomanry, which I have always thought was a bit harsh on Renvoize, as they had clearly gone to the trouble of developing a new casting, albeit in an almost identical pose to the Britains’ figure
It is hard to make the same case for the RHA model, which at first glance looks identical to the Britains’ one. The pose of the team, the shafted limber, the seated figures, all look like they could have been produced from Britains’ own moulds! Closer inspection reveals a few subtle differences, most notably on the mounted gunners. These have been given movable arms, an innovation that Britains had pioneered, but which was not utilised on their RHA sets until much later, with sets at the halt (Britains’ set #316, introduced in 1928) and at the walk (Set #2077, introduced in 1953). The other most notable difference is in the field gun itself. The Renvoize example is rather more solid and workmanlike, with a larger gun barrel and without the bucket seats used on the early Britains’ ones. Rose describes it as one of the most powerful toy cannons available at the time. The seat on top of the shafted limber also shows some difference from the Britains’ one, it appears to be smooth, with no slots like those provided
by Britains to help secure the gunners in place. The Renvoize example uses twisted wire, painted white for the traces, but unlike the Britains’ one, there are no metal rods, joining the pairs of horses together. Unlike the Britains’ set, the personnel have no cap lines to prevent their head gear getting lost as they pelt along. The paint finish is very similar to that used by Britains, with virtually identical colours being used, and similar details (including the lack of moustaches, as in the early Britains sets).
I would guess that the set would have been sold with an officer, probably based on the Britains’ figure? Given that the early Britains’ Officer figures had no stamp on the bellies of the horses, it is possible that some Renvoize examples have survived, but are unidentified as such!
I have not seen any record of whether Renvoize might have produced any other horse-drawn sets, including a Royal Artillery gun team. If any readers know anything more on this topic, please do let us know.
The Renvoize RHA team at the gallop as sold by C&T Auctions in December 2024
Hanks
Hanks was one of the other companies pursued successfully in the courts by Britains for piracy. Their copies of Britains’ Indian infantry and cavalry, as well Infantry of the Line, Foot Guards, and various British cavalry regiments are well known. They also made copies of some of Britains’ smaller b-sized
figures. Many of their figures were exported to the USA.
Perhaps less well known is that they copied the Britains’ small scale model of the RHA in service dress. This is illustrated here. The figures, limber and gun are very similar, although not identical to the Britains’ 1st version team. In particular, the team horses and the escort seem to be based on the escort figures provided in the early Britains set. The box, also shown here, was discovered on eBay but unfortunately without its original contents. It is in the style of other poses produced by Hanks and is large enough to accommodate a set like the one shown in the first image, along with an escort of 5 figures.
I have not seen any evidence that Hanks produced any larger scale gun teams.
Reka/Cresent
Reka was one of the other main competitors of Britains in the early part of the 20th Century. It was established by Baker, an ex Britains’ employee. This new company produced a huge range of figures, mounted and on foot, many of which were exported to the USA. The quality of Reka’s figures varied enormously. They ranged from some very poor fixed arm cavalry to superbly sculpted and painted examples of rather obscure regiments on foot such as Indian army pioneers.
In the 1920s the company got into financial difficulties, and it was eventually taken over by Crescent, who had been established in 1922 as an independent company. Along with Hill, Crescent provided Britains with its main local competition in the 1930s.
I am not sure when the Reka gun teams were introduced. The early Reka catalogues showed a line drawing of an RHA gun team that looks very much like the Britains and Renvoize ones. Possibly the Renvoize one was made by Reka for Renvoize?
What we know for certain is that a later design based around a team on trotting rather than galloping horses was sold by Crescent. The later design is illustrated in the next image. Many examples of this type have been discovered, not all of which have the Crescent trademark on the underside of the gun. Whether these were produced by Reka or Crescent remains uncertain. Possibly after the legal battles with Britains, a new design was produced that no longer fell foul of Britains’ copyright?
The cannon sold with these sets was a much simpler design, and less powerful than the Britains guns.
The Crescent versions can be found with different heads and paint finishes, intended to portray both the RHA and RA, in review order and service dress (the latter in both steel helmets and peak caps). Without the original boxes it is impossible to know if the service dress examples were intended as RHA or RA. The Cresent sets came in various sizes, included 2 and possibly 3-horse teams, with and without a separate escort.
Later issues of the 6 horse teams were sold in a “stand up” box, similar to the those developed for Britains Parade series, in which the figures stood in what would normally be the lid of the box.
Following correspondence with Norman Joplin, who kindly looked through his extensive archive of catalogues, etc, he has confirmed that none of the examples of gun teams he has seen are marked Reka. Mostly they have a “Made in England” stamp, while some guns and figures can also be found marked with the half-moon Crescent logo. The boxed set of RHA outriders shown here in a Crecent box, are however not marked at all. Crescent started operating in 1922 and took over the Reka moulds in 1932. In the Reka catalogue, dated 1924/1925, only a picture of Britains’ style galloping gun team with escort is shown. This is similar to one shown in a Crescent catalogue dated 1939 (discussed in more detail below).
The 1939 Crescent catalogue image of Set #807 7 also shows a team at the walk in review order, but with Royal Artillery style helmets rather than RHA caps. In the catalogue, the page headed “SPECIALLY POPULAR LINES” describes Sets #806, 807 and 809 as “Royal Horse Artillery” and states that: “There are 3 variations of this line. Full Dress uniform, Active service and Territorials.” It seems that Crescent were not as accurate as Britains in their depictions of the British Army!
The two horse, steel helmeted illustrated here is clearly labelled #581. Comparing this information with the Crescent catalogue suggests that this is a Crescent rather than Reka issue.
The gun has no Crescent stamp, but this looks like a much later issue than the other two horse team show in the previous image. The #121-set number on that box suggests that this could also be a Crescent rather than Reka model, but again, the gun has no Crescent stamp.
As noted above, the 1939 Crescent catalogue also depicts as Set #864, a boxed set similar to Britains’ set #39. This comprises a 6-horse gun team and separate escort of 5 figures. The illustration looks like a copy of the one in the Britains catalogue rather than something based on Reka/ Crecent’s own castings! Nevertheless, I am pretty certain that I have seen an example, but I cannot find an image to confirm its existence. Can any reader confirm a sighting of this rare bird?
BMC
BMC were responsible for producing a fine range of figures in the late 1920s and 1930s. In their advertising material they claimed to produce models of any Regiment of the British Army (as well as many foreign types). We know for certain that they did produce models of the RHA in both review order and service dress. Both are as rare as hen’s teeth!
Again, the teams are portrayed galloping at full pelt, although the officer provided with the set is in a somewhat more pedestrian pose. BMC did not go to the trouble of developing their own models of the gun and limber, relying on the purchase of “off the shelf” equipment from the French maker SR. The latter’s guns and other models, such as tanks and armoured cars, were also used in sets put together by
retail distributors, which combined figures and other components from a number of different makers. While obviously making sense from a commercial viewpoint, the sight of a RHA gun team hauling a French 75mm gun with a French pattern limber remains rather incongruous to my eyes!
The figures were however BMC’s own designs, possibly sculpted by G Wood. As with most other troops in the BMC range, these were rather larger than the standard Britains’ figure (more like 60mm than 54mm scale).
The Review order team wears the usual Hussar style uniform, with laced jackets. However, the normal fur caps are dispensed with in favour of a Brodrick style cap. This was a short-lived uniform addition, a peakless cap, universally disliked by the troops. It was introduced in the British army in 1902 and soon rejected in reality. By 1907 it had been withdrawn. In the BMC toy world commercial considerations prevailed. The castings used by the review order and service dress sets are identical, the service dress cap being repurposed simply by repainting as a Brodrick cap!
