This time, I bring a very rare item. It is a gun made by the Spanish toy company “JEFE”, which seem to be a great mistery among collectors. Very few information is available on the internet about this company, neither in Spanish nor in other languages. This is what we know about it:
-The company was founded by Joaquín Saludes Simón (1908-†1981) in Valencia, and had its office in the street Marqués de Caro, number 1.
-This gentleman was a successful businessman, who had a company that built signposting for highways, roads and cities. Since they might have easy (and cheap) access to metal, it is very probable that the company expanded their business with toys, similarly to what occurred with Payva and electrical appliances.
-The toy company was created around 1951, and disappeared in the early 70s. The first patent was obtained by Mr. Saludes the 10th October 1951 and corresponds to a toy pistol. Similar patents were obtained in 1952 for other shooting guns, pistols and rifles, as well as a stand for figures to shoot to in 1953. Note in the picture above that there are two bullets in the box, which are the actual bullets that the gun can shoot. Compared with other toy guns, this one is very powerful.
-Construction games, puzzles, undetermined toys and a toy spaceship/rocket were also patented between 1953 and 1962, apart from many other things that are not toys (road signals, automobile accessories, industrial processes and curious things like a subacquatic camera, a belt buckle or a cigarette case).
-From all those toys and much more there are photographs in different commercial catalogues released in the 70s by the company for toy stores and distributors. Unfortunately they are not available on the internet, but can be bought for an (in my opinion) huge amount of money in todocoleccion.net. Sample images from the seller include wooden boats, a video projector, a great collection of shooting weapons, an astronaut helmet and some other traditional toys.
-It is also known that Jefe built scale cars. From pieldetoro.net I have obtained the following image of a VW beetle, made probably around 1955. The paper in the pic was found inside of the hollow car and it was a ticket with which you could take part in the draw of a Renault 4/4 (a “real” one!) and 200 toys. The car is made in H0 scale and seems to be made of some kind of plastic compound.
-Last but not least, note that the gun in this article uses the name of Daniel Boone, the famous American pioneer. The famous TV series was aired in Spain from 1966 on. Juguetes Jefe obviously tried to profit from the popularity of the TV series developing a gun in the style of 1800, similar to the ones that could be seen on TV. A rifle was also built in the same style and also under the Daniel Boone signature.
FACTS and FIGURES:
- Name: PISTOLA DANIEL BOONE (DANIEL BOONE'S GUN)
- Year: Around 1968
- Company: Juguetes Jefe (Spain)
- Size: Approx. 25 cm
