Greg from Oz sent me these pictures from some recent e-bay lots.
He wrote:
I wonder if your readers might be able to cast a little light on some figures for me.
Some time ago I failed to win a number of eBay auctions.
The figures were as pictured and were reputedly by an Ed Saunders of Taunton. As you can see they are 7YW subjects and not without some charm.
According to the notes in the auctions, the figure bases were cut from tin cans. I presume the figures were soldered to them.
Interestingly, the cavalry look like old Airfix horses and are not dissimilar to the Marchmont Dragoons depicted in “Charge!”.
If anyone has any information, I’m exceedingly curious.
I wrote back (this is counding like That's Life, isn't it):
Hi Greg
Ed Saunders is a name that crops up regularly in early issues of Don Featherstone’s Wargamer’s Newsletter and also occasionally in Jack Scruby’s magazines. I think he is the same as the A W Saunders in the link below.
here (from Mike Taber's table Top Talk)
Interestingly the first article is about figures he made himself, although in a smaller scale. The method he describes for making them could fit very well with these figures. As you say the horses have a definite Airfix look to them – possibly the US Cavalry set. If they are mounted on tin bases the chances are that these have been cast in metal – I can’t imagine the plastic horses with the pegs for the plastic bases cut off and araldited to tin bases would be rigid enough or strong enough to hold metal riders.
I’ll post the pictures and a request for any information on the Vintage Wargaming and Old Metal Detector blogs, and I’ll circulate to a few people who might know more.
True to my word I'm posting the photos and request for information both here and on The Old Metal Detector.
If anyone could shed any light on whether Ed Saunders and A W Saunders are one and the same (I guess I could go through loads of old Wargamer's Newsletters to see if I could work this out but I don't have the time to do it at the moment), or has any further information on these figures, please respond in a comment. Thanks.
An earlier post about Ed Saunders and his commissioning of paintings of his wargames can be found here.
6 comments:
Clive,
Was it not Ed Sanders and AW Saunders...or have i just confused the issue by introducing a third party?
Doug, if you look at the previous post about the wargamme watercolours (link at the end of this post) it's definitely Ed Saunders. As Greg's note from the e-bay listing ays he was from Taunton and the watercolours post has a Taunton address, it's a fair bet they are the sme person (though not necessarily the same as AW Saunders - can't quite see how you get Ed from A W).
To confuse things further - you're not thinking of John Sandars, are you?
Clive,
Sandars, Sanders, Saunders - which is better, there's only one way to find out...
There was an Ed Sanders that wrote at least once for Newsletter (a set of gridded board rules i came across today), so i wondered. As for Ed from AW - i'm obviously not old (public) school enough to figure that one out (AlfrED perhaps?).
May be a DF typo - or someone else. maybe I'm thinking of Sandy Edwards....
Over on The old Metal Detector Robbie left the following comment on this post:
Hello,
I also bid on these figures,there were some British as well. Unfortunately I didnt win,but I did contact the seller re their provenance. The lady stated that her father used to correspond with Ed Saunders in England,and swopped figures etc. She went with her father when she was child to visit Mr Saunders,so I think its fairly certain it was the Ed Saunders.
Thanks Robbie.
I just noticed in The WAr Games Companion a reference to an ed Saunders who lent Charles Grant the wheels to cast his ACW artillery.
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