TWIN WINTON AXIS LEADER CARICATURE FIGURINES

[Brian Parkinson]

Up until one week ago it was thought there were only four axis leader animal caricature figurines created by Don Winton for Twin Winton Ceramics after Hitler invaded Poland in 1939. A FIFTH caricature has been discovered and it depicts Emperor Hirohito as a rat. The five figurines all measure 3 1/2 inches tall and they are:

 

Hitler Skunk

Mussolini Skunk

Goering Pig

Tojo Rat

Hirohito Rat

 

I have been able to obtain photographs of all five figurines and they will be included in my new book "Collector's Guide to Twin Winton's Early Animals (1936-1954)".

 

I own the Goering Pig and some day hope to own all five of these rare figurines. You can read more about the figurines and see pictures of four of the axis leader caricatures in an article I wrote for Antique Trader magazine. Here's a link to that article. (Note: I didn't write the lead in paragraph to the article and it's not an excerpt from the book. My article actually starts with paragraph two):

 

Antique Trader magazine article

 

Best wishes,

 

Brian Parkinson

Member

United States

 

Posts: 3

Joined: 28 Feb 2011, 09:40

[Homefrontguy]

Brian,

 

You must have been visiting the greatest collection of WW2 homefront items in the country to see those, I assume. Frank has an amazing collection. I have the Hitler Winton figure and have been searching for the others for years but they are hard to find. Good luck in your search.

 

Jim

[gwb123]

$250 each! That is pricey! I wonder how many of these are still sitting on a living room shelf somewhere, getting dusted every 6 months!

[Brian Parkinson]

Brian,

 

You must have been visiting the greatest collection of WW2 homefront items in the country to see those, I assume. Frank has an amazing collection. I have the Hitler Winton figure and have been searching for the others for years but they are hard to find. Good luck in your search.

 

Jim

 

Jim,

 

Frank lives about ten minutes from my house here in S. California and he does have the most incredible WW2 homefront collection. He owns four of the five Twin Winton caricatures having purchased the recently discovered Hirohito Rat within a few days of my telling him of its existence.

 

These little buggers are hard to find and many are sold privately. I know of a number of Twin Winton collectors who have at least one of the caricatures but none are willing to sell at this time and I don't blame them because they are truly wonderful pieces.

 

Good luck in your search too.

 

Brian

[Brian Parkinson]

$250 each! That is pricey! I wonder how many of these are still sitting on a living room shelf somewhere, getting dusted every 6 months!

 

I suspect quite a few, at least of the Hitler because he is included in a 1939-1940 Twin Winton wholesale catalog that I have and would have been sold nationwide by Twin Winton's wholesale distributors. Nonetheless, one rarely sees any of them come on the market because most are sold privately.

 

$200-$250 was the average I found when doing a ten year past sale research for my book. I suspect that figure might be a little low now and it will be interesting to see how much the next one sells for that comes on the open market.

 

Brian

[Homefrontguy]

I agree Brian. While the price sounds steep, you have a cross collectible with those who collect Winton and those who collect WWII anti-axis items/home front. I had never seen these until about ten years ago and in my time searching have seen four for sale and Frank has three and I have the other. I am sure those that most who have them as collectors know what they have and it takes a pretty penny to get someone to part with theirs so yes I would agree $250 may now be on the low end. I would love to find someone who has one sitting on a shelf that gets dusted every six months as gwb123 stated but I havent been that lucky. You know one is out there somewhere but what would the fun of collecting be without the hunt.

 

Cheers,

Jim

[Brian Parkinson]

I would love to find someone who has one sitting on a shelf that gets dusted every six months as gwb123 stated but I havent been that lucky. You know one is out there somewhere but what would the fun of collecting be without the hunt.

 

Cheers,

Jim

 

That would indeed be a thrill and I suspect some have been purchased at estate and yard sales for much less than their market values.

 

Brian

[Brian Parkinson]

Because Twin Winton had produced the caricatures of the Axis leaders, I always suspected they would have produced something honoring the Allied leaders. A few weeks ago a fellow collector confirmed my suspicions when he sent me pictures of this 5 1/2 inch tall bust of General MacArthur. Don Winton wouldn't have just sculpted the one bust and I have to guess there are probably busts of other famous WWII generals and Allied leaders out there somewhere. Pretty exciting find for us Twin Winton collectors. I can't determine exact production dates but this bust would have been produced sometime before January of 1942.

 

~Brian Parkinson~

[Brian Parkinson]

One of the five Twin Winton caricature Axis leader figurines has been listed on eBay. It's the Tojo Rat. The last one of these caricatures to sell was an undamaged Hitler Skunk and it sold off eBay last year in an open auction with multiple bidders for $512.00. I know of a few Tojo sales but those were all private, so it will be interesting to see how much this one sells for.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/281966832060?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

 

-Brian Parkinson-