Showing posts with label American Toy Auctioneers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label American Toy Auctioneers. Show all posts

Saturday, March 24, 2018

Carette Steam Engines And Their Accessories

Saturday, March 24, 2018
Sunny with Cloudy Periods
3 C  37.4 F



Carette Steam Engines 
and Their Accessories


Noel
Barrett


One of the more interesting toys of the Early 20th century were the steam engines.  These machines were miniature reproductions of life-size steam engines miniatured for children to play with. However, these machines had to be supervised by parents as they were very hot when operated, and  ran on alcohol as a fuel.

Georges Carette was one of the best known manufacturers of these toys. Not only were there small steam engines, but there were accessories to have the engine run them.


The toy steam engine consisted of a fuel source, which heated up air to run a piston, that would turn a flywheel. Attached to the flywheel was a metal cord that ran up to a driving pulley wheel, which also had working driving pulleys. The last-mentioned pulleys would then attach to toy accessories that also had drive pulleys that ran theses accessories.

 Drive pulleys that you see below, could attach to small men characters that did assorted "jobs" that you will see later on. These pulleys could be single or in multiples as the sketches below illustrate.



Below are working models of assorted machine shop machines. 
These are without people. 


Below are working shop machines with people.
Each toy had a driving pulley wheel that would attach to the 
driving pulley wheel of the steam engine.

Below, the scan page illustrates many people operating different machines.
Each machine has its' own driving pulley wheel in front.

The page below illustrates even more complex and sophisticated machines.


 Here's an actual toy machine from the Pook & Pook / Noel Barrett auction.
There are 2 workers hammering a piece of iron. The driving pulley can be seen in front, 
attached beside the anvil.


One is chopping a block of wood, while the left person is a locksmith filing something. 
The models could be anywhere from 3"-5" tall (7.6 cm - 12.6 cm)

Below are 4 machinists working at the same time. You can clearly see the 4driving pulleys that are attached to the driving pulleys of the actual machines that the workers are at.
 The larger driving pulley to the extreme left and the largest is the master driving pulley,. That pulley would be attached to the steam engine.

Finally, a pair of riders on horses. You can see the large red driving pulley
at the left in the photo.

I'm sure that many of the steam engines found at auction might still be operable and could attach to the people working models that you saw above. Of course, you'd have to be very careful operating these machines, and you should be taking these machines outdoors for safety purposes. 
Once the driving pulleys of the steam engine and small toys were attached, you could see a miniature group of tradesmen plying their trades.

There are still today manufacturers of miniature steam engines. If you type in miniature steam engines or toy steam engines, you will come across the brand names of  the manufacturers - Wilesco, Mamod, and Jensen

Even today, these miniature models are still popular!

Thanks for visiting,
and as always
Have a great part 
of the day or evening.

Stacey Bindman
toysearcher@gmail.com






Saturday, December 2, 2017

An Easy Way to Identify a Bing Toy

Saturday, December 2, 2017
Overcast and Un-seasonally Warm
3C  38 F



An Easy Way to Identify
a Bing Toy



Below:
Bing German Tin Large 11 Inch (280 mm) Open Limousine. 
Period driver not original to car but looks good, missing an arm. GBN mark.

Below:
Bing Open Tourer Limousine 9 inches (228 mm) with Driver. 
Fine working German tin toy


The above scanned image is from the 1912 Bing Catalogue.
The image is of the Bing logo that was lithographed on Bing toys.

The blue arrows in the 2 photos below are pointing 
to the Bing logo at the back of the 2 toy cars.




The History of the Bing Toy Company

Bing or Gebrüder Bing ("Bing brothers") was a German toy company founded in 1863 in Nuremberg, Germany by two brothers, Ignaz Bing and Adolf Bing, originally producing metal kitchen utensils, but best remembered for its extensive lines of model trains and live steam engines. Ignaz is also known for his discovery and development of the Bing Cave, a show cave in Germany.
The company produced fine pewter and copper tableware before embarking on toy production in 1880, their first teddy bears were released in 1907. By the early 20th century, Bing was the largest toy company in the world, and Bing's factory in Nuremberg was the largest toy factory in the world. Although Bing produced numerous toys, it is best remembered today for toy trains and liver steam-powered toys. In addition to toys it made scientific and educational novelties, and a huge range of kitchenware, tableware, office equipment, record players, electrical goods and so on.
The "Nuremberg Style" of manufacturing toys on steel sheets with lithographed designs that were stamped out of the metal, formed, and assembled using tabs and slots, was perfected by Bing. This manufacturing method remained in widespread use well into the 1950s, long after the Bing company had been dissolved.*