Here we have a feast for railway model collectors everywhere, a whole set which shows trains and sundry items from Bassett Lowke and Bing. Now we dealt with Bassett-Lowke yesterday, so today we will have a look at Bing.
Gebruder Bing, or the brothers Bing, was founded in Nuremberg in 1863 as a company to make metal kitchen ware and utensils, but they diversified to make toys, and by 1905 could rightly claim to be the largest toy sellers in the world. Their range included boats, cars, trams, optical toys, tinplate models, stationery engines, and trains.
Bing's first trains hit the market in the 1880's, and they were one of the first companies in the world to produce track, and also, slightly later, to offer railway buildings
In 1902 they introduced the first ever electric powered train.
In fact several of Bassett-Lowke`s trains were actually made by Bing - though Bing repainted them, on arrival, so they were in British liveries - and they also made trains for the toy store Gamages. Eventually Bassett-Lowke would save time by supplying Bing with the paintwork specs and also plans and drawings of the latest locomotives so they could be copied.
Somehow, things went very bad in the 1920s, and in 1927 the President and his son jumped ship. And in 1932 the company went under. Its assets were all sold off to other manufacturers, even the name was sold. However, when the president left, he bought another company making tinplate toys, and did a lot of work on improving the smaller sized `00` gauge trains. He also trademarked a new name, "Trix" which then joined up once more with Bassett-Lowke, who distributed the trains in the UK, and would go on to produce them under license. He managed to leave Germany just in time, and move to England, where he died in 1940.
In our original Godfrey Phillip Reference Book, RB.13, this set is lavishly described as :
- 101. 25. MODEL RAILWAYS. Small cards , size 67 x 35 m/m. Not numbered consecutively, but cards bear reference to numbers relating to B.D.V. gift scheme. Fronts printed by letterpress in colout. Backs in green, with recurring paragraph explaining how B.D.V. Coupons can be exchanged for items illustrated on the cards. Issued 1927.
Subjects (First line of BACKS) ;-
- No.84. Circular Water Tower
- No.60/624. Country Station
- No.10/513/0. Crane Truck
- No.1012. Double Road Tunnel Mouth (Bassett-Lowke) 194 Coupons
- No.1003. Engine Shed (Bassett-Lowke) 840 Coupons
- No.60/615. Gantry Signal
- No.1006. Goods Depot (Bassett-Lowke) 630 Coupons. No. 10/637. Crane (Bing) 170 Coupons
- No.62/230/0. Guard`s Van (Bing) 60 Coupons. No. 10/537/0. Barrel Waggon (Bing) 74 Coupons
- G.W.R. “Vulcan” Locomotive
- No.10/674. Level Crossing - Movable Gates (Bing) 170 Coupons. No. 10/616/1. Telegraph Pole (Bing) 50 Coupons.
- No.61. L.M.S. Bogey Brake 3rd. (Bassett-Lowke) 420 Coupons
- No.1346 LM.S. Open 10 Ton …
- No.95. L.M.S. Post Office
- L.M.S. Scale-model Locomotive
- No.134/33. Loco Coal Wagon
- No.10/664/0. Mechanical Turn-Table (Bing) 280 Coupons
- No.2. Model Hoarding
- No.62/520/0. Motor Spirit...
- No.9466/0. Parallel Points (Bing) 120 Coupons.
- No.10/529/0. Petrol Wagon (Bing) 87 Coupons. No.10/546/0. Timber Waggon (Bing) 114 Coupons.
- No.951. Pick-Up Apparatus
- No.10/.611/0/ Railway Bridge
- No.1002. Signal Box
- No.1020. Station Overbridge
- No.60/61. Wayside Station.(Bing) - 210 Coupons. No.10/641. Lamp Standard with Ladder (Bing). 80 Coupons.
Actually I am a bit disappointed by this, I would have liked to have known what they cost in points, so I might add them in myself, in brackets, but not tonight... or not all of them tonight, anyway ! I did add one or two, and hit on the plan of making the original wording to appear in standard text, whilst the additions are in bold text. Doing this also allowed me to add in the makers of the models, and the fact that there are sometimes two models on one card.
And once more it must be noted that the cards are not actually numbered, which leads to some of them causing confusion, most notably "No.2. Model Hoarding", which is not card 2, but model 2. And there are other double digit numbers too.
As you may imagine, that amount of information was never going to make it into the original World Tobacco Issues Index, and you are right, for all it says is :
- MODEL RAILWAYS. Sm. 67 x 35. Unnd. (25). See RB.13/101 ... P50-69
That is more or less repeated in our updated World Tobacco Issues Index, save a new card code and also a new reference book. relating to our updated Phillips reference book. That text therefore reads :
- MODEL RAILWAYS. Sm. 67 x 35. Unnd. (25). See RB.113/101 ... P521-342