Britains extremely rare Exploding Trench

Details

Britains extremely rare Exploding Trench
Patent No.3180.1915, wood and card constructed trench with spring mechanism, cap holder and red flag, the spring is held in place by the flag with floor of the trench level, a small blow to the flag, as when hit by a missile from a toy cannon, releases the spring, which propels a hammer to fire a cap and tips the trench floor suddenly backward thus propelling any interior toy soldiers to the rear as if by the force of the explosion, with original box base and reproduction lid and label, 1915 (G, box F, lid and label reconstituted)

Literature

See Opie B, page 142-143.

Lot Essay

Although the box label exhorted 'Very Interesting, No Danger' and the mechanism was an excellent example of Britains toy making ingenuity, when released for sale in 1915, at the height of the trench stalemate on the Western Front in the First World War, it was seen by the public as in the worst possible taste and had to be withdrawn.

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