Tin Santa Toy, Early Crank Find

Our very early Santa toy find is a deep curiosity.  We need your help!

The toy has English writing on it, but seems to have German Santa toy traits.  From what we can barely discern, it was marked on the square base “World Wide Delivery”.  

The owner was a World War II vet and came up with Arnold and TippCo toys from an allied bombing site; this may or may not be a related fact.

The square base and shaft with cam remind us of Fernand Martin.

Looking Closely, the appearance shows a fire and then some cleaning.  We are calling it ‘Sooty Santa’.  One arm was replaced and then we could see the bending action, likely one of retrieving mail from inside the box.  One could argue the opposite, and Santa is mailing to kids. The envelope was replaced.

The Mail box opening (an 1860’s invention) has a lid marked “Mail” for this Christmas toy.

We may be imagining things, but we believe the round stickers to be a boy’s head reaching, bringing he mail to Santa Claus.

From a manufacturing standpoint, this is very crude with sheets of tin used then we have a very expensive body sculpt in tin of Santa.  It is a very detailed and deep draw tin stamping that is seamed together along the sides with a two piece head-abdomen pressing.  Arms are of simple sheet tin.  Legs appear nearly hand formed as do the feet.

The crank uses a cam and rotates santa at the waist, pushing/pulling mail from the box and into his hands.

Let us know what you think, and help us trace this toy’s history!

Ed

toys@antiquetoys.com