Unknown tin toy lantern

[More to restore]

A few weeks ago I visited a second hand toys shop and bought a nice tin toy lantern. It operates with a 4.5 Volt "flat" battery (3R12). It has a lever to switch the lantern on. There is no reference to a manufacturer or a production date. Does anybody know this lantern? Who produced it and when?
I tried to check on internet when these batteries were introduced on the market and it is likely that that happened between 1945 and 1955.

Thanks in advance




[?]

[phillyreading]

My first guess would be Marx, but there were many toy companies in the time period you are suggesting. Could be; Bing Toys, Ives, American Flyer, Hornby, Dorfan, LGB.
Another thing that may help is to look in an older issue of CTT and find an article on Lionel History that also list Lionel's competitors.
Lee Fritz

[Anonymous]

I'm really into tinplate stuff like this, but this one has me stumped! I've never seen one of these before. It is without question European, but beyond that I can't say much else. Bub? Distler? Kibri? Who knows? There were quite a few smaller, more obscure tinplate toy manufacturers in Europe years ago, so it could be one of them rather than one of the more famous companies. Best of luck in finding out! I'm curious about this, too, now!

[Anonymous]

It is German. Maybe Bing or if not Voltcamp.

[thor]

All those flat batteries were are 3 AA's wired in series. You can easily make up a convincing replacement. The original Ever Ready flat batteries were 3 AA cells held together with tar and those brass terminal strips can be faked from sheet brass.