VINTAGE RAILROAD Lead Hired Man Digging w/shovel 1930's-1940's Grey Iron Casting

Description

VINTAGE 2 1/4'' RAILROAD LEAD FIGURE - man with shovel. This is a 1930's-1940's Grey Iron Casting Company painted lead figure. It is documented as F-4 Hired Man Digging in Richard
O'Brien's 1997 Collecting American-made toy soldiers: Identification and Value Guide, page 171. The value of this item is based upon condition and is assessed as Very good+.
Condition is "used". Shipped by USPS First Class Mail.
Background:
Grey Iron Casting Company, located in Mount Joy, Pennsylvania, was founded as the Brady Machine Shop circa 1840 and rechristened as Grey Iron Casting Company in 1881 after a fire destroyed the original location. It was the first major dimestore toy soldier maker in the United States.
In 1917, shortly after the United States entered World War I, the firm brought out its “Greyklip Armies,” a series of nickel-plated troops that cost a modest ten cents for a carded set of ten infantry or five cavalry. Grey Iron began issuing three-inch cast-iron dimestore soldiers in 1933; the roster included American Revolutionary War troops, West Point cadets, and doughboys. By mid-1936 the firm was distributing its “Iron Men” series, which were better designed than earlier models and stood a full 3¼ inches, bringing them into line with those of Barclay and Manoil. Simple in design, Grey Iron’s soldiers were perhaps the least imaginative of all the dime-store figures.
However, the company did produce an interesting civilian range called “The American Family” that featured 2¼-inch figures scaled to 0-gauge trains. One set, “The American Family on the Beach,” enjoyed such props as a lifeboat, a cabana, and a section of boardwalk.
Although Grey Iron survived the postwar doldrums that finished off most of its competitors—and even produced a new group, American Continental soldiers, in the 1950s—the toysoldier part of the business never really revived after the war. But the company remains in business today (a division of the Donsco Corporation), producing mechanical banks and other cast-iron toys.
Source: O'Brien, R. (1997). Collecting American-made toy soldiers: Identification and Value Guide. Florence, AL: Books Americana.