Schuco

The word Foreign is just visible on the mouse’s collar. The design appears to be an imitation of a German Schuco mechanical mouse. We must thank Philip Treece for pointing out a site on the web by Kevin Dockerill. The site lists trade marks for Japanese tin toy manufacturers and, according to this site, the trade mark on the box is very similar to the one shown for Sankou Seiki Co., Ltd.. Item N950 in the collection is a rather similar mouse, but in this case the word on the collar is JAPAN rather than Foreign. Note that the Davenport advertisement refers to Mickey Mouse, presumably a good selling point.

The bird is very well made and it has a sample label around one leg with 727 written in pencil on it. The ‘7s’ are written in the continental style with a horizontal line half way up. Although there is no other identification on it, it could well be made by Schuco in Germany.

The well dressed tinplate bear has a collar with the word ‘Foreign’ on it. It is either a bear made by Schuco from Germany, or a very good imitation.

The adult mouse shuffles around in a circle as it swings the baby mouse up and down. ‘Schuco patent’ is stamped into the left foot of the adult mouse, and ‘Made in Germany’ into the right foot.

The word JAPAN is just visible on the mouse’s collar. The design is an imitation of a German Schuco mechanical mouse. Note that the Davenport advertisement refers to Mickey Mouse, presumably a good selling point.

The metal body is stamped ‘Schuco’. Complete with label saying ‘By arrangement Walt Disney’.