Toy soldier collecting is a big hobby in Britain these days, but its origins probably come from India.
The History of Toy Soldiers
Although there are many small sculptures of soldiers dating back to ancient times, there is no evidence that these were produced as children play toys. In fact, some of the best examples of these little sculptures are actually game pieces for chess or similar strategy games. The first real reference to the existence of sets of toy soldiers come from the courts of the French Kings. It is known that Louis XIII was given a set of 300 silver toy soldiers and later kings added to this collection. Unfortunately, none of these toy soldiers have survived to the modern day. There are a few individual examples here and there of individual toy soldiers made in more common metals.
Toy Soldiers in Britain
The first toy soldiers seem to have come to Britain via India, during or shortly after the Napoleonic Wars. The oldest set of toy soldiers in Britain is the Vizagapatam Toy Soldiers.
The Vizagapatam Toy Soldiers
The Vizagapatam Toy Soldiers is the name given to a set of toy soldiers held in a variety of collections in England and India. The largest collections are held by the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, the National Army Museum, and the Sandringham and Madras Museums in India. A number of other soldiers are thought to be in private collections.
These soldiers are grouped together because of a consistency of style, manufacture, and material. All of the soldiers are cast in brass. The soldiers have been given their name because one of the soldiers in the Ashmolean collection has the name Vizagapatam etched into it along with the date 1795. Vizagapatam is a town in India, once known for its brass casting.
Although the soldiers accurately display the diversity of an Indian army around the year of 1795, by including troops based on European, Indian, and Arabic warriors, they are not stylistically Indian. The soldiers themselves are caricatures with oversized heads and weapons. They are set into heavy rectangular bases. Neither caricature nor heavy rectangles is often found in traditional Indian art forms so the design of the soldiers remains a bit of a mystery.
Toy Soldier Collecting
From these humble beginnings, toy soldier collecting has become big business in Britain, and even divided into two distinct hobbies. There are those who collect toy soldiers merely for display purposes, but there is also a large group that collects toy soldiers for the purposes of wargaming. However, this group tends to use the terms "miniature" or "figure" and looks down upon the term "toy soldier" as the province of collectors.
Primary information for this article comes from Toy Soldiers and Ceremonial in Post-Mughal India by Simon Digby and J C Harle, Ashmolean Museum, 1982.
