I bought these wonderful painted figues at Southgate Auctions in 1996. They are made of some kind of heavy metal and there are 125 infantry, 11 men on horses and 48 men in 8 chariots pulled by 24 horses. That's 184 soldiers and 35 horses. They are pretty small; around 25mm tall.
I've asked around and here's an expert's opinion on them. As you can see though, this is not an official ID of the figures so please don't rely on the information given here:
"The infantry are mainly PB s range - Spanish scutari and caetrati, plus Syrian archers. The Chariots are Indians and probably Hinchliffe. Some of the horse archers look like PB range though some - the better painted ones - may be Ral Partha."
And:
"PB Range is another Minifigs range – between the S Range and the later Minifigs 25mm range."
There's a lot of information on Minifigs here:
http://www.intonet.co.uk/~rblack/
And this line gives some idea of their age: "The Minifigs ‘S’ range Ancients range was gradually replaced around 1972 with the new Phil Barker inspired PB range."
Another enthusiast sent me this link, which clearly identifies the above archers as PB24 Syrian Archers, (half way down the page)
http://www.intonet.co.uk/~rblack/mingall.htm
The infantry and horsemen are of a high standard, and of over 200 figures, these are the only 3 missing any parts:
The chariots are complete too, though the way the figures have been fixed into the chariots is not of the highest quality, and also the chariots have been glued onto the bases in a pretty basic way. I've packaged the items as best I can, but the wheels tend to buckle on the axis on the base of the chariot and not all of the chariots are fixed to the horses. I've fixed them all in place as best I can but it's very possible that in transit a few many come away from their bases and will need to be re-glued.
Also the metal is very soft and it's easy to bend the spears and bows. Again I've straightened everything and packed very carefully but you may need to straighten some of them again when you get them out of the packaging. This is very easy to do, and doesn't seem to harm or weaken the figures in any way, and doesn't even dislodge the painted surfaces.
I don't know how to describe the way the chariotmen have been painted. Naive charm??
Here's an indication of size:
Despite their size, they are surprisingly heavy; the packaged box of figures weighs in at (I'm guessing) 1.5kg.
This is a very special and unusual set of figures. I've been looking around for something similar but haven't found anything like them on ebay or elsewhere.
I always accept returns, so you can bid with complete confidence.
Good luck!
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