A Class Act - Z & K Antiques

Tuesday, January 26, 2015
   Partly sunny & warm

A Class Act:

Z & K Antiques

Please click here to visit this fine outstanding American Antiques Dealer

  I'm revisiting all of the kind people who have helped me out with my toy blog, and one of the finest dealers that I have seen is Z & k antiques. The reason for my saying this is that not only do Mr. Bob Zordani & Ms. Heidi Kellner have select outstanding merchandise, but they've both taken the time and effort to design their website beautifully. Viewers can easily browse through the different categories of merchandise for sale, and then select beautiful and excellently-photographed images to browse. In the case below, there is an actual photo to illustrate how the coin would drop into the "vault" of the cast iron bank.

  Also, as you read from the description below, their "narratives" are well-researched and documented. And for this who like to read, these descriptions have been well written and make browsing an antiques website a pleasure to peruse.

"Circa 1888: This late 1880s Hubley Trick Dog cast iron mechanical bank with six-part base has excellent original paint with no touch-ups, comes in completely original condition with no chips, cracks, repairs, and includes a key for the coin trap. The bank's mechanism works perfectly, and it is easy to see why the Trick Dog was popular with the youth of the late Victorian era and remains just as popular with 21st century mechanical bank collectors who are sure to be pleased with this handsome 19th century American bank manufactured by Lancaster, Pennsylvania's Hubley Manufacturing Company." *Courtesy &Copyright Z & k antiques. 

Cast iron American toy mechanical banks were very popular in the United States from the 1880's-1930's and even later. The large pennies could be saved in these banks, and a penny back then could actually buy you a vast array of items ranging from penny toys to a fistful of candy! 

   You can see the large-sized photos below illustrate the different features quite well. Cast iron banks could be wound up or cocked like a gun. When released, each toy and character would take a coin and do something with it that would eventually drop it into a holding area. Some mechanisms required a key to wind up the movements, while others would simply have a "trigger" pulled back and locked (cocked) into a release position.

With all of the movements, these toys became known as "mechanical banks".

For this ewho would like a nice history of these banks,

may I recommend the address below for the Mechanical Bank Collectors of America

Please click here too visit this great resource for mechanical banks

Most sellers prefer not to shops you how the toy works, especially for true antique toys (100 year olds)! However, in this case, the actual movement of the dog is shown. When the trigger was released, the dog , with a coin in his mouth, would jump through the hoop, and drop the coin into the barrel.

Belwo the barrel and under the platform of the toy would be the holding area for the coinage.

AS you can see, these toys were made quite well, and still work perfectly 100-125 years later!

Thanks for dropping by,

and as always,

have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be,

Stacey Bindman

toysearcher@gmail.com