[André]

Hi everyone,

Have you read this in the SCCI letters? And have anyone seen any of these? I have one of them mint from Schwäbish Gmünd. Do any of you have any more with other colours? I have number 5 in silver. The size is exactly as said in this ad.

[Smurfysmurf]

Very nice, Andre...I have not seen those before

[Benny]

Hi André

I had one with silver and one with a blue box.

Whether there are more colors, I don't know?!

[Tintin]

Hi

Never seen before.
Great piece for your collection.
So i can't tell in which colours they come from.................

Tintin

[André]

Hi Benny!!

It says blue, red and green coloured banks also exists.

I was told the bank was made by a silversmith in Schwäbish Gmünd. Maybe I can find out the name of the local smith??

[Lia]

It`s very rare and beautiful piece André!

Lia

[André]

I have 2 interesting pieces of information today. First one about the smurfbank, the second and fantastic news is about the WT!!

I got a little more facts about these smurfbanks.

The "silberwarenfabrik" making them( What is the english name for this???: a factory making items of silver?? ), well anyway, this factorys name was Bauer. The factory do not exist anymore, eventhough the name still exist but has nothing to do with silveritems anymore. Unfortunatly all persons that could remember this is not alive anymore, since it was about 30 years ago and these items were only made for about 1 year.

Here is the bluepainted smurfbank.

I think I might be able to get a picture of the "versilberten Behälter für Streichhölzer" also???

[Smurfysmurf]

Were these licensed items, Andre or was the situation similar to the Canadian brass smurfs?

[André]

I am pretty sure they were licensed and they had something to do with Schleich. Could be that Schleich asked this company to make these??? Or could be for other reasons but still with a connection to Schleich.

[André]

It seems they did not have any direct connection with Schleich, except that they were made in the same town. But I am pretty sure they were licensed since both companies were from Schwäbish Gmünd and they would not be able to manufacture and sell those items without the knowledge of Schleich, right!!

Here are 2 other items. Bank in persian gold, number 4 on the list. And also the holder for matches.

[André]

And eventhough Schleich did not sell them or manufacture them, it must have been a connection in the way that the smurf on the bank looks exactly the same as the Schleich normalsmurf made there then( look at his pose. the hands)! So it seems a bit odd otherwise since both were made in Schwäbish Gmünd then??

[André]

Marking on smurfbank Maureen.

[Smurfysmurf]

Thank you for the pictures, especially the last one..

I do think it's possible that a former Schleich employee gave the other company a mold without the permission from Schleich..but I am not sure they would have used the Peyo copyright sign unless they made a licensed item...I am pretty sure this particular marking was copy-right protected back then

to think I only grew up a couple of hours away from Schwabish Gmund (I had a classmate who drove with the train from SG to Stuttgart every day) and was a somewhat smurf collector...but never paid any attention to stuff like this

[André]

I think they were pretty cheap ones then. Basicly silverplated items for kids. Items you buy when a baby is born or as gift for the christening.

Items like this box you can buy now for about 15 euro and then they just added a smurf on top. there are many items like this, so it is not a jewellery!!

But just like smurfs you could buy very cheap then, and which are rare now, they are very nice items to have. Especially if you find information in the SCCI-letters about their history.

[Tintin]

Hi Andre

Congrats with the moneybank...............hope you can find some more items for your collection.

Tintin