Hans Joachim von Zeiten by Elastolin

 Back in the 1930's Elastolin made a small range of figures relating to the 7 Years War, there were nine foot poses of Prussian Grenadiers and three mounted personalities; King Frederick I, von Seydlitz and von Zeiten.

This is von Zeiten his horse has some repainting and the figure himself also a bit of touching up here and there but it's all been quite sympathetically done, so I can live with that.  The same horse was used for all three personalities with the distinction that only Frederick's mount was painted white.  Von Seydlitz and Von Zeiten were also issued in a lesser paint scheme as a mounted Hauptmann (Captain) and Cavalryman respectively.

The mounted figures have no marking under the base, which is a plain block of wood, the horse was moulded with the wires from it's armature protruding through the bottom of the hooves which were then anchored in holes drilled through the wooden base.

The three mounted personality figures as shown in the 1936-37 catalogue, the last year they appeared.

In the 1930's Elastolin only made Prussian Grenadiers in mitre caps, post war they made new designs in tricorn hats to represent the armies of the American War of Independence for export to the U.S. including foot and mounted models of George Washington, in the 1960's they produced another range for the AWI in plastic.  But the mitre cap Grenadiers never reappeared.

All nine of the mitre cap grenadiers are shown in this illustration from the 1936-37 catalogue, the two marching poses carried cast metal muskets with bayonets which are a bit too heavy and makes them prone to falling over.  The Corporal and Officer in "Parade March" (Goose-stepping) each wield a spontoon, the Officer carries his hat in his hand in salute, the standard bearer holds a tinplate Regimental flag.  

The drummer is painted with black skin as an African which was the preference for such musicians in many Prussian Regiments of the time, the fifer was painted as a white European.  The Grenadiers standing firing and charging are moulded with muskets in composition over wire, in the usual manner, as the cast metal muskets carried by the marching poses would cause them to topple over.