A Trio of Sculls

Sunday October 10,2016
Clear Skies and Sunny
13 Celsius / 56 Fahrenheit

A Trio of Sculls

Please click here to visit this exceptional auctioneer

Bertoia Auction's nest auction will be from November 11-13, 2016.THere are a number of exceptional and rare toys, so I decided to write about them. For today, I selected a trio of sculls.

Sculling is the use of oars to propel a boat by moving the oars through the water on both sides of the craft, or moving a single oar over the stern. By extension, the oars themselves are often referred to as sculls when used in this manner, and the boat itself may be referred to as a scull.*

* Citation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sculling

If you watched the Olympics on television, eventually you would have seen the water events, on of which was "Sculls". A long time ago, probably when these toys were manufactured, sculling was a very popular leisure activity. On ant Saturday or Sunday, you would see lots of these "boats" moving up and down rivers or in lakes. Even today, near universities, you'll see athletes and their boats rowing. On the pairs and eights, the man at the back of the scull is called the coxswain. The job of the coxswain is to guide the boat, band to shout commands as to how fast the oarsmen should pull or how many strokes per minute.

Gunthermann Eight Man Scull

Germany, a very elusive offering done in lithographed tin, colored uniforms representing racing team colors of blue and white striped suits, skull done in light brown, clockwork driven, an impressive toy with the same synchronized rowing action as the real racing skull. 

Ex. Dick Claus Collection.  

28" ( 711.2 mm) length 

(Excellent-Pristine Condition.)

It's very rare to see three different sculls at the same time in one auction, thus,

 I decided to post them all by themselves.

Bing Two Man Scull

Germany, beautiful and extremely scarce example, hand painted and lithographed tin, depicts dual rowers at scull with clockwork action, coxswain sits at helm, painted hull simulates early wood finish, well designed, includes original oars, an absolutely spectacular auction offering. 

One arm reattached, one arm replaced, rudder shows touch up, otherwise a magnificent toy in 

Excellent.-Pristine Condition

30" (762 mm) l. 

German Single Oarsman

Possibly Gunthermann, features single oarsman in red, white, and blue outfit, familiar clockwork toy design, when wound body rocks back and forth simulating rowing action, keywind appears behind man, otherwise familiar clockwork toy design. 19"( 482.6 mm) length. 

Oars appear to be restored. 

(Very Good Condition)

Image courtesy of Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sculling#/media/File:Single_Sculler.jpg

Even in the fall season on nice autumn days, the diehard rowers will still be seen on the rivers rowing at their best. As for myself, we closed down our swimming pool - it was simply too cold, and leaves and tree berries were starting to become too cumbersome to clean each day! 

Thanks for dropping by,

and as always,

have a great time of the day or night,

wherever you may be.

Stacey Bindman

toysearcher@gmail.com