The English firm of W. Britain, became the world's leading toy model manufacturer and over a period of 60 years produced several thousand different sets of cavalry, infantry and militia from countries around the world. However, it was the British toy buying public's rejection of war-like military toys during the inter-war period which provided Britains with the opportunity to introduce their model farm animals and figures introduced in 1921. The farm reflected the social history of agricultural production in the United Kingdom at the time in an idealised form. The firm were quick to realise the potential of the huge overseas markets, especially in the United States, but also in Australia. The Sydney toy department store of Walther and Stevenson Ltd, at 395 George Street, which operated from the 1930s to the 1970s, sold Britain's farm toys together with Australian-made timber farm buildings. This gave Australian children the opportunity to more realistically build and develop an Australian-style farm layout with British toy farm animals, machinery and workers. Production of lead models made by Britains ceased in 1966 though the company still makes plastic and pewter models. After close to a century toy farm sets are still very popular with children today especially in the country areas of New South Wales. The market appears to be dominated in Australia by the moulded-plastic animals and figures made by the German firm of Schleich and the French one of Papo.

Toy farm animals, accessories, horsedrawn machinery, lead, W. Britain, London, England, 1921-1961 and farm buildings, timber, [Australia] purchased from Walther & Stevenson, Sydney, NSW

The lead farm animals are part of Britain's Model Home Farm series and include 21 sheep, six horses, one of which is wearing a horse rug, five cows, four foals, four dogs, two Exmoor rams, fowls and chicks, a turkey, a rabbit, a pig and piglets and a horse and milk float. The farm figures include a farmer driving his horsedrawn gig, a farmer's wife, farmer's son, a village girl, a man pushing a wheelbarrow, and a carter walking beside a horsedrawn tumbrel cart. The farm accessories include 32 sections of fencing, three sheaves of wheat, two dog kennels, two "New Model" trees, a water tank, a trough, a dove cote, a step ladder and a fold-up garden table and. The set also includes items from Britain's Miniature Garden including coloured vases, various flowers, tubs and a lawn mower.

The collection of farm animals and accessories also has six timber farm buildings comprising a farm house with detachable roof, an outside toilet with a nail on the door and sheets of paper, laundry with copper and tubs, a stable with a hinged roof with a ladder up to a loft for feed, a milking shed for two cows, and an enclosed fowl pen with hen house.

The farm toys made by W. Britain are of lead and manufactured in a technique called hollow casting introduced in 1893. This enabled the firm to compete in the lead toy market, which had previously been dominated by Germany. The technique involved pouring a molten mixture of lead, tin and antimony into an engraved mould. The lead was then swilled around inside the mould by the hand caster which stuck to the sides of the mould. As the antimony cooled, it expanded and developed the fine details in the casting. The excess metal was quickly poured back into the melting pot, leaving the shell of the figure inside the mould. The air hole in the top remained and was the route by which the excess was discarded. The secret of success relied on the temperature of the metal coupled with the speed of the process. The hollow-cast method enabled up to four times as many figures to be made from the same amount of lead previously required for one solid figure and therefore reduced the cost and increased sales.

The W. Britain firm was founded in about 1845, when William Britain Snr (1828-1906) moved from Birmingham to Hornsey Rise in North London where he converted his new home in Lambton Road into a factory. The family worked together producing ingenious mechanical toys clockwork toys such as a walking bears, Chinese coolies and penny farthing riders but these toys were too expensive to mass produced. However, it was the miniature toy lead soldiers, people, and farm animals for which the company would eventually become famous.

A major development for the company occurred in 1893 when it was said that William Britain Jnr, found a way of casting lead figures that were hollow, more life like and most importantly more economical than the two dimensional solid figures, (known as flats) had been made by German toy manufacturers. Despite this claim, the origin of the hollow-cast method has been attributed to Germany. In 1896 Britains experimented with new ideas and figures with movable arms appeared. William Junior designed and cut all the models for toys soldiers which at first were quite crude and often anatomically incorrect. However, they rapidly improved with every new model released and this together with new painting techniques saw them become renowned for hollow-cast lead toys especially in regard to their attention to detail and emphasis on research to ensure accuracy. Adoption of the hollow-cast method enabled Britains to gain a strong hold on the lead toy market with William Britain Snr's sons taking the business into model soldiers.

At first Britains made regiments from the United Kingdom including mounted Lifeguards, the household cavalry of the Queen, foot soldiers and guardsmen. William's younger brother, Frederick, became the salesman of the family and set out to convince the conservative-minded British store-owners that Britains lead soldiers were worthy of being sold alongside the Heyde figures made in Dresden and the Mignot pieces made in Paris. Initially business was slow due to these imports however the expansion of the British Empire in the later decades of the nineteenth century resulted in a larger Royal Navy and British Army with new battalions. The company then developed a new series based on contemporary events and in 1897 model troops of the Empire began to appear celebrating Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. Britains opened an office in Paris in 1905 and models were adapted for the French market. British Royal and ceremonial occasions such as the accession to the British throne, coronations and trooping the colour provided an opportunity to issue souvenir and ceremonial lines connected with the Royal family. Models of football teams where introduced in 1904, Salvation Army figures in 1906, and civilians in 1908 followed by railway staff and passengers in 1909 all in the standardised 54 mm size. A series devoted to North American Indians appeared in 1908 but cowboys did not follow until 1913. The Scout movement formed by Baden Powell influenced the company's decision to issue Boy Scout sets in 1910 but Girl Guides and American Girl Scouts had to wait until the 1930s.

Britains became a limited company on 4 December 1907 and the new board of directors included William Britain Jnr, Alfred Britain, Fredrick Britain, Edward Britain and Frank Britain. Like other companies in 1914 they were encouraged by the British government to produced toys of a patriotic nature, so cannon on gun carriages and soldiers poised for battle joined the range of model soldiers.

The 1920s saw a dramatic change in Britain's product range. They introduced the US army and navy as well as South American soldiers and Canadian Mounties but sales plummeted due to the apparent rejection of military style war toys after the carnage of the First World War. This saw Britains introduce their farm, zoo and circus series. The farm figures, animals, accessories and horse drawn farm equipment were first introduced in 1921 and the models were marketed as the Model Home Farm which soon ousted the traditional timber hand-carved German farm sets

A9134