Wooden WW2 FFI truck on eBay

I have recently come across this interesting 1944 FFI (French Forces of the Interior) truck containing 7 painted wooden FFI soldiers on eBay. Toys on Liberation and the immediate post-war period are extremely rare these days. Link : https://www.befr.ebay.be/itm/363501640682?hash=item54a262dbea:g:94MAAOSw8A1eBJNA

The Museum of Aquitaine (Bordeaux, France) - Part 2

Historic model ships in the Museum of Aquitaine.

GÖSO Anti Aircraft Truck

The company Christian Götz und Sohn (GÖSO) was founded in Fürth (Germany) in 1878. Up until World War I, GÖSO mainly manufactured sheet metal accessories for dollhouses, including fittings for complete bathrooms such as tile walls, bathtubs, stoves for these bathtubs or washbasins. The product range also included tin toys for playing outside, for example in the sandpit. GÖSO also produced the interesting bell rollers, which are extremely rare today and are rarely offered. During the First and before the Second World War, GÖSO, like so many other tin toy manufacturers, produced military, i.e. war toys. This consisted of the usual assortment of sheet metal armor, jeeps and sheet metal cannons. The vehicles were often equipped with composition figures and had a clockwork drive. This GÖSO tinplate  anti aircraft truck was found recently in Germany.

The Museum of Aquitaine (Bordeaux, France)

The Museum of Aquitaine in its current form was officially created in 1963 by museologist Georges-Henri Rivière, who was tasked with reorganising France’s museums of history, archaeology and ethnology after the war. The museum is the result of the merger of several public collections built up by the city since the sixteenth century. In 1963, collections from other museums in Bordeaux were brought together at the Musée Lapidaire, which was then renamed the Museum of Aquitaine. Today, the museum boasts over 1.3 million pieces, illustrating the history of Bordeaux and the local region from prehistory to the twentieth century. Prestigious collections of regional and extra-European archaeology, history and ethnography retrace the lives of the Aquitaine people and their relationship with the rest of the world. Ship owners, sailors, missionaries, explorers and doctors all brought back objects from Africa, Oceania and the Americas to Bordeaux: the museum’s extra-European collection comprises 5000 different pieces.

Elastolin 60 mm series of composition soldiers.

Elastolin also produced its distinctive 60 mm series of composition soldiers from 1924 to 1932. This 60 mm series soldiers have very "dried up" look.

Nolivos sugar manufactory in Santo Domingo (1774)

This scale model is based on the original plan of the Nolivos sugar manufactory at La Croix des-Bouquets (Santo Domingo 1774, Dominican Republic ) belonging to Pierre-Gedeon de Nolivos, a governor from the Bearn region. Additional elements were borrowed from plans, period engravings and actual vestiges from sugar manufactories belonging to other families from Aquitaine region. The model is presented at the Museum of Aquitaine (Bordeaux, France) 

DOMAGE et Cie (DC) army series of composition soldiers

In 30s/50s DOMAGE et Cie (DC), a French manufacturer based in Paris, produced plaster (composition) series of toy soldiers, including paratroopers and anti-aircraft forces.

Visiting Monkstown castle near Dublin (August 2021)

Monkstown castle was built in the 13th or 14th century by Cistercian monks of St Mary's Abbey in Dublin, to administer and protect the land they owned in this area. It remained Cistercian property until St Mary's was dissolved in 1539 by order of Henry VIII who wanted to control the wealth of the monasteries. It then passed, as part of the Abbey's extensive possessions, to John Travers, master royal ordinance. Nothing from the 13th or 14th centuries survives today. The main tower probably dates the later 15th century, but its western part is a later addition. It is four storeys high with a sentry box along the stairs, and has high, distinctive Irish , battlements with projections through which stones could be dropped on unwelcome visitors. There are also some photos of the Monkstown Church below.

Swiss army soldiers in action (Part 2)

Vintage Swiss army composition toy soldiers that were produced by Elastolin (Germany) in 30s/40s for export to Switzerland.

French marines in action

DOMAGE et Cie (DC), a French manufacturer based in Paris, produced plaster (composition) toy soldiers from 1920 to 1955. The figurines were made in three sizes:75mm, 60mm and 54mm. DC applied its own hollow-casting method to make composition figures. The Marine series (75mm) was one of the toy soldiers series developed by DC.

Prehistoric settlements at Musée Basque (Bayonne)

Bayonne’s story begins in ancient times. They discovered the Neanderthal settlements’ traces of belonging to the Middle Paleolithic here.