Please,I Need A Dictionary!

Saturday, March 17, 2018
Sunny and Cold
-4 C  24.8 F

Please, I need

a Dictionary!

Please click here to visit Bertoia Auctions on Live Auctioneers

 I  found a Pratt and Letchworth that was located in Buffalo, New York.  As it turned out, the company was founded by 2 brothers Samuel Fetcher and Pascal Paoli  Pratt, and William Pryor Letchworth as the Buffalo Malleable Iron Works.  The company originally produced saddlery hardware and was the largest in the USA. In 1889, Mr. George S. Crosby, a toy designer was hired.
The toys were marketed by the name of Buffalo Toy with the company then being known as Buffalo Indestructible Malleable Iron and Steel Toys). The toys were cast iron and were mostly hosres with different kinds of wagons. 
* reference atca-clug.org/article02.php

The reason for today's title is that in the 1880's there were no cars. As such, people travelled by assorted wagons. There were many different wagons with many different names, that today are rarely used in the English language. You'll need a dictionary to find out what each of the horse-drawn vehicles mean!

Pratt & Letchworth Four Seat Brake

An all elusive example, impressive scale, and painted in eye appealing 

black  and orange, drawn by a team of four horses in brown and white,

seven seated figures.

Circa: Late 1800's, early 1900's

Length:  27"  68.5 cm

Pratt & Letchworth Hansom Cab

Painted cast iron, open front coach 

with side windows.

Length:  11"  28 cm

Pratt & Letchworth Double Surrey

Painted in assorted nice colours.

Circa 1893

Length:  15 1/2"  39.5 cm

Pratt & Letchworth & Welker Crosby one horse dray

stake sides,seated driver, open bench, patented

pull device attached to front leg of horse.

Circa 1893

Length:  13 1/4 33.5 cm

Pratt & Letchworth Phaeton

missing patented guide wheel usually attached

to the front leg of the horse

Circa late 1890's, early 1900's

Length:  15"  38 cm

Pratt & Letchworth Dog Cart

Horse appears restored,

Circa: Late 1890's, early 1900's

Boxed Pratt & Letchworth Sulky

Cast iron , yellow sulky, includes

patented front leading wheel

attached to front leg of horse.,

Cast iron, includes scarce box

with "Buffalo Toy" brand name

Circa: late 1880's, early 1900's

Length:  8"  20.03 cm

Determining a Toy's Age from its' Design and Characteristics - Part II

Tuesday, November 25, 2014
Partly sunny, then overcast with minor drizzle

Determining a Toy's Age 

from its' Design and Characteristics - 

Part II

   I've already started the conversation about trying to determine a toy's age from it's design and characteristics. Below is the first part of the series:

Please click here to go to part I of this topic

  I had started with horse-drawn trolleys. As we shall see, there is an evolution to this type of passenger vehicle as time progresses from the horse, to electricity, and finally to the gas-powered motor.  In part I, I introduced the lithographed paper on wood toy. These type of toys were made from the 1880's-1910's.However, during the same period, there were alternative material that were used.  These were painted tin and cast iron wheels, with stencilling for any lettering that was needed to identify the route of the trolley or the name of the trolley.

One has to realize that at the time, there was no electricity. The major system of electricity for city lighting and transportation would come in the early 1910's.  However, the first electric street car in North America was put into service on Michigan Street in South Bend, Indiana in 1882. By then electricity was well-enough and safely developed to produce on a mass scale, mostly from hydro-electric peer, although the USA had plenty of coal for  steam-powered generators.

Tin was a common-enough metal, and it receives paint quite easily. If you look closely, you can see the hand-painted reins that  were painted on the horses.  It was also very easy to form and cut either with "tinner's snips"or for faster and cleaner cuts (like the windows) through die cast cutting.

What I also learned through writing this post is that

soldering was used to join the hitches from the trolley to the horse or horses.

For those who don't know the English word "soldering", that is a process whereby a soft metal (lead at the time) was melted on to the parts needing to be jointed. Of course today, the main use for solder and the process is in plumbing for jointing pipes and elbows together. However today's solder is a different alloy (mixture of metals) that are much safer to people and the environment.

It's also important to read the condition or any alternations that auctioneers or sellers provide in the description of a listing.In the example below,  Bertoia Auctions that the "horses re-soldered to a replacement hitch". That is how I learned that some of the parts of these toys were soldered.

I didn't search for a "real" horse-drawn trolley, but I'm sure of you did a search for the "real" item

you'd find a photo of one that would have been in operation.  Also,since photography was well-establihed by the 1880's it wouldn' t be too hard to find an authentic photo of an authentic trolley way back then.

Think of this as "homework" for this post.

Of course, as a teacher, I did a search to see if I would find one. I did!
Press the link below that is a Bing Search and you'll find the first entry the one to redirect to.
wikipedia 1880's horse trolley

Thanks for dropping by to visit, and as always,

have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be,

Stacey

toysearcher@gmail.com