Bertoia Auctions March 2013 Auction

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Bertoia Auctions: March 2013 Auction

    If you read yesterday's post you'll know that  I've been trying to get permission to write about modern and large die-cast models. However, that's been hard. So I had one of those "Eureka moments" yesterday. I though to myself, what don't I check out my  very helpful auctioneers and their respective companies and see what's the latest or new.

   So I took my own idea, checked out the 4 fine auction houses that I have permission to work with, and I was amazed. There were images of old toys that either I hadn't seen before,or in association with parts that I had not seem together. So yesterday, I wrote about Morphy Auctions, and today, I'll be posting about Bertoia Auctions.

  I've been very grateful and fortunate to have everyone's permission to use their fine photos of outstanding toys. And today's post is no different. What amazed me with regard to returning to these auctioneers, is that I could find toys that I had not seen before, or in as good a shape. 

  The images that I have for today are only from the first 2 pages of the auction set for March 16, 2013. There are still plenty of pages that I could  have looked through. SO for today, here are the fine images from Bertoia Auctions. 

I've seen and written about the Hubley Motorcycles, and written about several of the fine companies that make replacement parts for damaged or missing toys. But here was a listing for both - the original Hubley, and a replacement part. I don't know who made the replacement, but it fits well! 

I like the miniature toys that were made by all of the cast iron toy companies of that toy-making era.

The wheelbarrows are great, and what's interesting to note  ate the differences of wheels (cast iron and rubber) between the larger and smaller toys.

A great-looking toy. It's missing the coal tin chute accessory, but I'm sure  the stores that sell parts might have this one. If not, I'm sure a model or toy collector could make pone from some sheet of tin or a thin sheet of steel.

I like to think about how children could be entertained with toys from the eras of the 1900's-1940's.

The toy scales are no different.  I especially like the older-style  red and silver scale with the counterweights.

That hay rake is marvellous! I hadn't seen one before. I have written about "real" true to scale salesman's models. These are collectibles, but not toys.  The gigantic settling of the mid-west, and the move westward in the USA was in the 1850's - 1920's.The Trans-continetal Railroad in the USA was finished  with the "official" famous photo of the last spike driven into the tie on May 10, 1869. That occurred at Promontory Summit, Utah, USA.

I've bought and sold the later era Hubley Bell Telephone Truck in Green, and of course written about the red cast iron one form an earlier era. However, this listing that is for sale in the March auction is more complete. It has the assorted tools, the ladder, and the telephone pole cart. Also take note of the pulley.

A wonderful set of miniatures. I can;t figure out hat the 2 silver objects in the centre foreground are.

However, the 2 green telephone especially the one with the cardboard box are outstanding.

What I find amusing is that like the Model T ford, telephones back then came in 1 colour - black 

(I'm, 99% sure), yet here is a toy in green.

If you've ever watched old black and white movies, you'll have seen phone numbers like  RE 2634.

The "RE" was an abbreviation for Redwood. When I was growing up in the 1950's there were more telephones and people, and out phone number was CR 7-6738. The CR represented Crescent.

In 1962, when we moved, letters were replaced by number, and 1 more was added. We were fortunate to have a "teenage" line of 747-5000. Talk about having a great telephone number!

The miniature toilets, bath, ironing boards, dust sweepers, and I assume 2 clothes washers are great.

I wonder if cast iron would have been OK to place in wood doll houses? 

I remember the water pumps in the 1950's when we went to Missisquoi Bay to fish and to vacation.

You'd have to place some water in the top of the pump to "prime the pump. I think the way that worked is that you wet the inside rubber gasket to create an airtight seal. You them were able to pump the pump and water eventually flowed out.They still have millions of pumps around the world in less-developed  countries.

As for that "separator", I knew what it was but I had to double-check. Sure enough, it is what I thought it was - a cream and milk separator. I haven't seem any of the above 3 toys before. Of course, if I now did a search on Live Auctioneers, I'm sure I'd find them somewhere! 

I've never seen real gas pumps like these when I was a child. By then (early 1950's) the newer electric pumps had long since replaced these hand-cranked models. I'm going to try to get some photos from someone to match up the real ones with these toy models.

Of course, I had to investigate where Route 30 was in the USA. I did a quick search for 
"US route 30  USA" and the first result was Wikipedia. Is there anything that Wikipedia does not have in their encyclopedic data bases? As it turns out, Route (Highway) 30 is an East-West (why not also West-East) highway established in 1926, and is in the Northern USA, about 1/3 down from the Canadian-USA Border. It is the 3rd longest highway after routes  U.S. 20 and U.S. Route 6.

One thing for sure- you can't say either that I don't write enough, or that you won't learn important trivial information to answer the questions on the TV show -Jeopardy! 

Thanks for dropping by, 

and as always, have a great day.

Stacey