Schiffer Publishing Ltd - From a Knowledge of Fine Books Comes a Love for Toys

Sunday, April 7, 2024

11° C / 51° F

A Perfect Spring Day

Clear skies with lots of Sun 

Schiffer Publishing Ltd

From a Knowledge of Fine Books

Comes a Love of Toys

Please click here to visit this excellent source of books on old and antique toys

About the Author

 Dr. Force passed away in 2013 at the age of 75. He was a highly-educated man who received his Ph.D in German Literature from Indiana University. Dr. Force taught

German at Central Connecticut University (USA) for 42 years. With his excellent  ability to having learned German, Dr. Force also worked with the Schiffer Publishing Company (Ltd) as a translator. But his "pièce de résistance" (outstanding event or item), was also in writing, and in collecting toys. Over a long period of time, Dr. Force had collected about 30,000 toys.*

 I paraphrased the above introduction about Dr. Force from his introduction of this book*

 I'm far from an expert or authority on toys, but the more I read and post on my blog, 

the more I enjoy writing. With the Internet, there are lots of sources and opportunities

to learn about toys. One of the best ways is of course magazines and books, followed 

by blogs, toy companies, and e-commerce sites such as ebay, Etsy and Liveauctioneers. 

I've been blogging since 2011, and have learned a lot from reading. It took me a few years to buy books, but eventually I did. I don't have a big library of books about toys. 

I have 25 books.

I have 10 books from Schiffer Publishing Ltd. In the beginning, I didn't know that Schiffer

published a lot of toy books, along with lots of other topics.  However, after several years of blogging, I realized Schiffer was an excellent resource for books on toys.

I'll be writing four posts about Schiffer books and their author.

For today, I've selected the first book that I most recently obtained.

What I've noticed about Schiffer Publishing is their excellent choice in their selection of

authors who write about toys. The 2 books that I am writing about today are 

by the late author Dr. Edward Force.

Also, the photography and layout (how the items are arranged in the photo)

are also very well done. I was a photography teacher and a photographer 

(I still am a photographer, but not as much now).

To arrange the toys that are presented on the 2 page screen-captures below takes a lot of time. You have to use long rulers or long pieces of wood to act as a reference point to

align all of the toys in a straight line. The angles of the toys all have to be parallel with each other. Those photos look so easy to do, but believe me, there was a lot of work to 

line them up like soldiers lined up for a march. And one final note - the lighting and the white foundation that the toys are placed on, are both "with the times", ergo the latest style for

presenting many items in a catalogue-like arrangement. 

 I've noticed that there are books by Schiffer Publishing Ltd, and most other publishing companies, that are more of a reference and catalogue book than a narrative.

This type of book is a great resource for toy collectors. Not only are the toys described in terms of size, colour, materials, but they also have the periods of time when they were made. What's also interesting about this book is that the title of the book is:

Classic Miniature Vehicles

of Northern Europe

Since this book is about Northern European toy companies, each section related to a European toy company has a superbly-written and knowledgeable write-up of the company history, the country where it existed, or still exists, and dimensions of length in the metric system. Key people who started the company are also identified by name.

A good portion of the book contains both the histories of toy companies,

as well as the descriptions of the toys. Some toys were made in many different variations.

As an example, There is a 1959 Tekno Volkswagen Van (96 mm or 3.78 inches in length) that lists 27 

different variations of the toy.  I'm sure that Dr. Force was writing this specific information for serious toy collectors who like to collect the entire set of toys. Also, I'm sure that certain variations are more valuable than others. I can't even fathom the amount of time and research that Dr. Force invested to compile all of this specific detailed information.

I'll be continuing more of this post later this week.

Thanks for visiting

As always,

Have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be,

My name is (Mr.) Stacey Bindman

and I can always be reached at

toysearcher@gmail.com