Tuesday, April 30, 2013
The W. S. Reed Toy Company
The W.S. Reed Toy Company was founded in 1875 in Leominster, Massachusetts (USA). The main reason that I'm writing about this company is that they produced toys in a similar style and nature as yesterday's post - Bliss toys. The toys were produced of lithographed paper on wood, and some also were pull toys. Consequently, you may find a Reed toy ship or boat named as a Bliss toy, and vice-versa. The company produced many fine toys until the early 1900's.
The paddleboat above is my favourite. It's too bad you can;t see all of the small detail in the lithography because of the limited size of the image from my screen-capture. Historically, there were 1000's and thousand's of such boats on the major American rivers in the 1800's. They moved most of the commercial and food goods up and down and across the great country. Eventually trains and other types of ships replaced them.
This "volunteer" fishing vessel is my second favourite. The wooden masts were replaced, and the flags were copied from a copier and placed on the ropes. I have no idea as to why the ship is called a "volunteer" vessel. I like the design, and the lithography on the side of the ship. The ship also reminds me of a sort of sad event. When Jacques Cartier, an explorer came to Canada in the late 1490's, he found so many cod fish that he stated that his ship couldn't move, and that you could catch the fish with large buckets dropped by rope. Today, the codfish are no longer. A combination of poor mismanagement by the Canadian government, and overfishing by both Canadian, and international fishermen (fishers) killed the industry!
Of course, not to end on a sad note, there still are fish on our Atlantic coast. However, they remaining species are also dwindling. Hopefully, the government will do something soon!
Thanks for visiting,
and as always, have a fgreat part of the day,
wherever you may be.
Stacey
2 comments:
W.S. Reed, is this a name of a person the company was named after. I thought for some time, then it occurred to me the chair company use reed in the making of the chairs. Hence = Whitney Reed Chair Company, which I understand is separate from Whitney Reed Toy Company. A matter of curiosity, if you have an opinion - I would enjoy to hear it. Thank you - Jay Crist.
Hi Jay,
I just found your comment to my post on "The W.S.Reed Toy Company".
It's always great to hear from someone more knowledgeable than me.
May I have permission to add your comment to my post?
(toysearcher@gmail.com is my e-mail address)
Thanks for writing,and have a great day,
Stacey Bindman
Blogwriter
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