During the course of the research for my book, I discovered this short film which contains some very interesting images of toy soldiers, including some rare Paris Office types. To support the war effort, Pierre Bressol, a French actor and filmmaker who was wellknown during the silent film era (but is now completely forgotten), made a short film in 1916 called Les Petits Soldats de Plomb. The film was restored by Pathé and brought back into the spotlight for the Wolrd War 1 centenary. It is available online at: https://youtu.
be/4oha3biILs0?feature=shared
In the movie, Jean-Baptiste, a French soldier, writes to his wife Louise that he expects to be home on leave shortly. Uncle Pierre visits Louise and brings their son Bébé a box of toy soldiers. At night, Bébé dreams that the toys come to life and defeat the enemy (the Germans of course!). The Dream sequence includes many more figures by Britains and XR, all of which dash across the miniature battlefield with lots of explosions and smoke. The scene ends of course in victory for the allied troops. The film also ends happily, with Jean-Baptiste reunited with his family (temporarily at least!).
This silent film is fascinating from the viewpoint of a toy soldier collector. It is interesting to see that the child, likely from the French aristocracy (with the fictitious name Ajac, including a noble particle) or at least from the Parisian upper bourgeoisie, received a gift box containing Paris Office and X.R. figures. These are mixed together, along with what looks like a smaller scale S.R. artillery train. It is reasonable to assume that Britains Paris Office, like other manufacturer included figures from other brands in their boxes or sold their figures to other manufacturers. Another possibility is that wholesalers and department stores purchased the soldiers from different manufacturers and composed the boxes themselves. There is evidence from line drawings in various French department store catalogues that suggest Britains figures were sold in this fashion.
The following images captured from the film illustrate the key elements in the story, focussing of course on the toy soldiers!
Homing in on the figures, it is possible to identify:
- Britains Paris Office Officer standing with binoculars, service dress;
- An odd Britains Soudanese infantry at the trail;
- Britains Chasseurs à Pied? at the slope;
- XR Charging figures; and
- a small scale SR b-sized gun team.
Unfortunately, the image of the box lid is not good enough to discern the label.
More images of the box contents showing what appear to be Britains Poilus in service dress and kepis.
Bébé holds up a Britains Paris Office flag bearer
This image shows XR charging figures (British and French), slightly larger in scale than the Britains.
A scene from the dream sequence, in which the lead soldiers come to life and fight a victorious battle against the Germans – here XR British infantry are charging into a war-torn village.
Germans surrender to the charging XR French Poilus.
Britains, Paris Office French Infantry, with SR artillery support, march through the village.
Britains Chasseurs à Pieds and a Chasseur à Cheval with officer standing holding binoculars.