Figural tin lithographed whistles were produced in Japan for their domestic market and for export around the world as early as the early 1900's. The images on the pre-war whistles are often historical or cultural such as military figures, famous people, movie stars, political charicatures and comic characters.There are recurring themes of clocks, sports, dressed animals, airplanes, zeppelins, cars, flowers and graphic designs.
Many times the same designs were used on different shaped whistles so you will see the girl holding a striped umbrella in a small and large figure shaped whistle, a narrow and wider rectangular shape and a tube shape. At times the image is the same but the artwork has a slightly different look in style or color pallette as if it was redone by a different artist. Color variations are also evident...sometimes deliberate and sometimes produced by aging. More challanges for the collector who wants every variation !
Pre-War vintage whistles can usually be recognized by their more muted colors and a softer more painterly style of lithography with more detail than is usually seen on later post-war whistles.
Post-War Japanese Whistles-produced after World War 2
The postwar period for whistles seems to start after the Occupied Japan period...or at least I have not found any whistles marked made in Occupied Japan. The early 1950's whistles are close in look to many of the pre-war ones with the difference being the colors of the lithography. 1950's colors in Japanese tin of all kinds are very distinctive with red, orange, turquoise, lime green and a cream white predominating. The style of art often tends to excessive decoration, multiple patterns, incredible detail and more stuff crammed into a small space than you can imagine possible. On the best examples of early 1950's Japanese tin the surfaces of even the smallest whistle can contain wild patterns, comic looking animals (dressed in detailed patterned clothes, of course), flowers, bugs, music staffs and musical notes...in case you forgot it is a whistle.
The later post war whistles (1960's and after) are also colorful and can be filled with detail but as time goes on you will see more areas of solid color with less shameless excess. The colors also change, specifically the whites are brighter and more white than cream, the turquoise blues give way to royal or navy blue and darker greens replace the vibrant lime greens.