604 - Collection of Tin Figures, French Cavalry, Chasseurs of the Africa Corps and Line Dragoons

Collection of Tin Figures, French Cavalry, Chasseurs of the Africa Corps and Line Dragoons Painted tin figures, predominantly mounted figures on base plates. Two groups: 1) French chasseurs of the Africa corps 1830, six riders in light blue coats with red trousers and red headgear, some with raised sabre, on brown and white horses. 2) France line dragoons 1800 to 1820, fifty riders in green coats with white breeches and helmets with caterpillar crests, some with sabre, flag and trumpet, on brown, white and red-brown horses, together with fallen and wounded riders with falling horses. Condition commensurate with age, partly rubbed and overpainted. H. approx. 5 cm. Tin figures were commissioned by a publisher, designed by a draughtsman and cut by an engraver into slate or metal moulds. From the 1920s onwards, alongside children's toys, a separate branch of cultural-historical collector's figures developed with the aim of depicting uniforms as accurately as possible; figures of these series are larger than the classic Nuremberg size of 28 mm. The Chasseurs d'Afrique developed out of the Chasseurs Algériens raised after the French landing in Algeria and were formed by decree of 17 November 1831 as two separate regiments of the Armée d'Afrique; by 1841 they had grown to four regiments. Under Napoleon the dragoons were until 1811 the most numerous cavalry arm of France; their number rose to thirty regiments in 1803, and they were armed with carbine and bayonet, straight sabre and pistol.