Description
British made vintage Black Man (or BOY) WEARING a “Boater Hat” A boater (also straw boater, basher, skimmer, cady, katie, canotier, somer, sennit hat, or in Japan, can-can hat, suruken) is a kind of summer hat worn by men, regarded as somewhat formal, and particularly popular in the late 19th Cent & early 20th Cent.
GENUINE vintage-made mechanical BANK or “Money Box” as what most British people would know them as
Manufactured from a Zinc or Alloy metal
Probable Maker = Robert Eastwood Starkie
CIRCA 1945 But could well be EARLIER? as there was a previous generation in The Starkie family who ALSO made these Black Man banks in near-identical style
The “Portcullis” style original base-plate has markings = “Reg. No. 844290 / Starkie’s Patent No. 32537 / Patented in Foreign Countries”
This bank may be operated by TWISTING the Black Boy’s EAR forward, which actuates the coin arm exactly as if you had used the lever on his other shoulder (Possibly MORE “racist” for this ?)
NO missing screws/bolts
This GENUINE ANTIQUE bank is in GOOD condition for an Alloy bank (As these do tend to “Spit-off” their paintwork with Oxidization over the years)
He is in PERFECT WORKING ORDER
His little remaining paintwork looks to be 100% original with no retouching & showing a genuine age patina of 75 or more years
This bank would make a SUPERB addition to any BLACK MEMORABILIA or Mechanical Bank collection
This SCARCE “Boater Hat” version iconic British-made ALLOY mechanical bank is unconditionally GUARANTEED 100% GENUINE un-messed-with & entirely original
GUARANTEED to be so “For Life”……. (Which means you cannot ask for a refund after you die)
My lifetime guarantee of authenticity allows for a full refund of purchase price AND postage costs BOTH WAYS
It has become necessary to mention this because of the increasing amounts of FAKE & MISREPRESENTED “Black American” banks that are now polluting the WWW
INVEST in the REAL McCOY not a lousy cheap reproduction AKA FAKE