An Extremely Rare Wilkins Street Sweeper

Wednesday, May 27,2020

Sunny

37 C.  99 F

(A record-breaking high temperature)

An Extremely Rare

Wilkins Street Sweeper

Please click here to visit the listing this fine seller on ebay, and this fine listing

It's not often that I see a toy with the price set at 5 digits , being offered on ebay! So naturally I was curious to see what the toy was all about. It turns out that it's a Wilkins street sweeper made in the 1890's, It's a cast iron toy, that's in very good condition for being 100 or more year old.

It's length is 12 1/2" (317 mm).

I contacted the owner and asked for permission to use the photos, and to write about the fine toy. As it turned out, the owner of the toy is Mr. Aaron Phelps, whose ID on ebay is apbubba1.

Aaron's photos are excellent, so that I had very little work to improve them, but for resizing them to a smaller size.

In Aaron's own words:

"I've done some searching and it looks to me this was the last one to sell since 2005.  From a collection out of Minnesota. I don’t believe there is too many that are still around.  Thanks Aaron Phelps."

It's amazing that the bristles for the street sweeper are still  

on the toy, and that the letters (D.P.W.) standing for Department of Public Works

are also still on the toy. 

From this photo below, you can see a brown string

that is attached between the rear left axle of the toy, and the 

bristle gear on the shaft of the wheel.

The 2 photos below help you to better understand

how the sweeper rotates along the surface that it is  cleaning.

If anyone has some information about the Wilkins company, 

please send me the reference so that I can add it to this post.

So that's it for today, having written this second post.

I hope that this fine toy will sell, and that someone will enjoy

owning it.

Have a great part of the day or night.

Stacey Bindman

toysearcher@gmail.com

Another Beautiful Omnibus

Saturday, January 27, 2018
Overcast with Rain
4 C  39.2 F

Another Beautiful Omnibus

Please click here to visit the search results for "Omnibus"

 My previous blog post was about Dan Morphy's exceptional Omnibus.

So I decided to do a search on Liveauctioneers and found another fine toy from Bertoia Auctions.

France, circa 1890, impressive scale and detail, hand painted tin example has stunning attention to fretwork and fully railed steps on both sides of top deck, destination side boards read, "Ville de Marseille â Longchamp + Joliette," this piece is truly museum quality and a rarity in the offering from the Max Berry Collection, the two horses drawing this tram molded in true scale and meticulous embossing appeal. Mint & Box Sale example. 

Length 42 inches 166 mm

I can't believe how large this toy is! 42" or 166 mm long. It's truly exceptional, and I'm sure the toy was very expensive in the 1890's. Whomever received such a toy much have been very happy. Then again, how would a young child get the toy out of the house - the toy was probably even taller than the boy or girl who received it!

Thanks for dropping by,

and have a great day or night.

Stacey Bindman

toysearcher@gmail.com