JNF was founded in 1920 by Joseph Neuhierl in Fürth, Germany. The Company name, JNF, is formed out of the first letters of his name and the town of Fürth. In WWII, the Company had to produce for warfare, like many other toy Companies. In 1945, the US Army therefore confiscated all production facilities. Production at the JNF facility started again in 1947.
Elongated shape tin plate body with cut out windows and a detailed lithograph interior depicting the Split Window Volkswagen of the KdF era. This standard version had manual steering. The tin plate chassis included a clockwerk motor that had a lever to control a couple of motor speed settings and bumpers with license plate registration of “IN-35.” No chassis stamping on this KdF era version. Interestingly enough, this particular version used a different style lithograph interior design as compared to the other production JNF IN35s. The interior lithograph is two tone, a medium gray with silver detail instead of the normal three tone, olive green, yellow and black. The basic design of the seats are also different. The grey “GERMANY” lettering printed on the interior insert can be seen through the left split window. Manual steering with rubber tires. The rubber tires are slightly larger and have a different tread pattern than the rubber tires found on the cable steering versions. The chassis stamping differs in several areas from other versions, particularly in the front axle area.
The NEUHIERL company bought clockwerk motors, wheels, etc. for their toys from the company Paul Weiss Laufwerk Fabrik, also located in Nürnberg, Germany. Paul Weiss Laufwerk Fabrik existed from 1919 until 1969 and produced parts for tin toys as well as clockwork motors for many manufacturers. The Paul Weiss company logo was a multi-pointed star with P.W. in the star center.
This JNF IN35 version is certainly very rare and maybe one of a kind. Perhaps it is an early prototype or made as a trade show example.
