Bidspirit auction | ”Chinese Must Go” Cap Pistol

”Chinese Must Go” Cap Pistol with Original Box - By Ives, Blakeslee & Company. Pat. Sept. 2, 1879 - 4 3/4” Long. Ex-Gertrude Hegarty Collection. Toy collectors have long valued the ”Chinese Must Go” pistol as the truest holy grail in the field of animated cap guns. This has nothing to do with rarity because this model (No. 95) by the Ives Company was wildly popular with children. As such, many copies were produced. The toy draws its tragic socio cultural racial themes from the growing fear of the chinaman; an exotic outsider seen as another imminent danger upon the safety of the American lifestyle. This irrational belief system came to be known as ”yellow peril” in the press. The Caucasian man gives the Chinese man a swift kick in his butt. He further taunts and ostracizes the innocent Asian man by pulling his long braided queue. This magnificent mint example is from the collection of antique toy pioneer Gertrude Hegarty.